


to heal a broken heart

by kyou_kan



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Multi, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo 2020, Original Fiction, Romance, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 50,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27807556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyou_kan/pseuds/kyou_kan
Summary: Today would be a little different. That wasn’t just including the fact that she was working an opening shift.Ava showed up to work fifteen minutes early, and as a result, had to be let into the store. However, the one to let her in was the man with the dark hair and steely gaze.Upon looking at his name tag, Ava realized that this was Garrett.“Hey,” he said in a surprisingly relaxed tone as he closed the doors behind her.“Hi,” Ava practically squeaked.OrWhen her best friend offered that Ava work at her workplace, the last thing Ava expected to come from it was to develop feelings for one of her most emotionally closed-off supervisors. His heart is broken; she will find a way to help it heal.This is partially based on things that happened in real life. The romance itself is not, but many aspects about working, as well as customer encounters, are based on what really happened.
Relationships: Ezra/Owen - Background Relationship, Garrett/Hana, Lilith/Scarlett - Background Relationship
Kudos: 3





	1. First Meetings

“Galaxy Coffee turned me down,” Hana sighed, pushing her laptop to the center of the coffee table as she slumped over to press her chin into the mahogany wood.

Evelyn raised her eyebrows at that as she leaned back from her homework to look at Hana. “Really, without even interviewing you?”

“Yeah,” Hana turned her head so that her cheek was squished against the wood instead, “they sent me an email saying that I don’t need the job, and that they’ll leave the position open for someone who needs it more.”

“Well,” Evelyn tapped the end of her pen to her chin in thought, “you could apply at Health Precision and work with me.”

Hana’s eyes opened wide, a twinkle of determination dancing within. “Do you think that would work?”

Leaning back, Evelyn pressed her palms into the floor, pulled her legs out from under the coffee table to press one against her chest and fold the other in front of it, and leaned her head back onto the couch behind her. “Yeah, I’ve told my boss, Lilith, a lot about what it was like to work with you at Mike Meyer’s. She’s been super impressed with my stories and has been wanting to meet you since about a week after I got hired.”

“Wow,” Eva exclaimed, a grin growing wide on her face as she shot up from her slump. “How do I apply?”

“We can head over to talk to Lilith and she can give you the paperwork,” Evelyn laughed as she stood up, pulling her coat up from the couch beside them. “I’ll send her a text to let her know that we’re on our way.”

Hana stood as well, with the grin still lighting up her face. She stooped to shut her laptop and walked to the hooks by the front door to grab her own coat, glancing to her left into the kitchen to see her cat napping on the counter. When she pulled her coat on and turned towards Evelyn, she noticed that she already stood there with her coat and shoes on, busying herself with pulling her scarf on. Hana pulled her own shoes on, pausing only to pull the heel of her left shoe out from underneath her foot.

Once they stepped outside and Hana finished locking the door, Evelyn pulled her scarf over her nose and shivered, the chilly air of early November already biting her nose a light pink.

“How are you able to walk around without a scarf?” she asked with a shiver as they approached the stairs of the apartment complex.

“I used to live in a winter state,” Hana laughed. “Don’t you remember that?”

“Oh yeah,” Evelyn mumbled with a roll of her eyes, though Hana could see the corners of her mouth turning up past her scarf.

“Besides,” Hana said, reaching up to pinch the red skin of Evelyn’s cold ears, “maybe you’d be warmer if you left your hair down.”

“Oh, come on,” Evelyn cried, batting Hana’s hands away and cupping her hands over her ears. “It’s more comfortable to wear my hair like this.” At Hana’s disbelieving look, she added, “It keeps it out of the way!”

“Only when you’re running or riding your bike,” Hana quipped with a shake of her head as she opened the driver’s side of her car and climbed in and Evelyn climbed into the passenger’s side.

The drive to Health Precision was only about five minutes, and before Hana knew it, she and Evelyn were walking through the doors of what she hoped would be her future workplace.

It was nice to know she’d be working so close to home.

“Lilith is over there,” Evelyn said, pointing to the dark-haired woman with brown eyes standing behind the counter.

As Hana approached, a woman with springy dark curls and pink metal-framed glasses turned to Evelyn with a grin and waved with a latex-gloved hand. Before she could get a look at the woman’s name tag, the woman — Lilith — whom Evelyn had pointed to turned to Hana and offered a welcoming smile.

“Hi, welcome to Health Precision,” she said warmly. “How may I help you today?”

“Hi, my name is Hana,” she said, hoping that the slight tremor in her voice went unnoticed. “Evelyn told me that you have some spots open?”

Lilith’s smile widened the moment she heard Hana’s name. “Hi, Hana. Let’s talk in the back.” As she walked out from behind the counter, she turned back towards the other woman. “If you need any help, Ciara, you can call Garrett up.”

Ciara nodded and gave a thumbs up, sending a smile and a wink in Hana’s direction as Lilith led the way to the back. The gesture did wonders in helping to calm her nerves. Everyone here seemed so open and friendly; Hana already felt better about what working here would be like in comparison to the work environment of Mike Meyer’s.

The back rooms here were so spacious and clean, Hana noticed as they walked through. She took note of a poster just outside of what she assumed to be the office that had a list of managers; there were only four names on it: Lilith as the store manager, Nikita as the assistant manager, and Astrid and Garrett as shift managers.

Lilith stopped in front of a door with a window in it and pulled a set of keys from her pocket. She sifted through them until she found the correct one and unlocked the door, holding it open for Hana. Once Hana entered the room, a small office, — which only contained a safe on the wall opposite the door, a desk with a computer on it and a table fitted snug at its left to the right, some file cabinets with a computer showing the camera views immediately to the right of the door, and a couple of chairs, one pushed underneath the desk, and the other in front of the file cabinet closest to the door.

Lilith gestured to the chair by the door and pulled the other one out to seat herself. Hana followed her lead and sat in the chair by the file cabinets.

“How are you doing today?” Lilith asked.

“I’m doing good,” Hana said with a smile. “What about you?”

“I’m doing well, myself. Now,” Lilith smiled as she leaned one elbow on the desk to her left, one leg moving to cross over the other as her free hand came up to rest on the knee of the leg on top, “What does the word ‘team’ mean to you?”

“A team is a group of people who collaborate to work towards a common goal.” Hana clasped her hands together in her lap. “They are able to compensate for each others’ weaknesses with their strengths, and push each other to overcome those weaknesses.”

Lilith smiled at this. “Good answer. Do you believe that all people are — by nature — inherently bad?”

“No,” Hana shook her head, “I believe that all humans have the opportunity to do the wrong things, but may choose not to do so. The choice to do the right thing — especially in a bad situation — is what truly makes someone a ‘good’ person.”

“Right.” Lilith nodded. “So, everyone has the capacity to take the wrong course of action, but that doesn’t mean that they will.”

As they talked, Hana realized that this was an interview. She hadn’t even applied yet, and she was already getting an interview!

At the end of it, Lilith gave her two pieces of paper, one with instructions on how to formally apply, and the other with the information on how to apply for the store location they were at.

“Would you be all right with giving me your phone number?” Lilith asked as Hana took the papers. “It would just be so I have a way to contact you regarding your application and how to move forward with the hiring process.”

With a nod, Hana gave her phone number, which Lilith wrote on a paper that she slipped into her pocket. Once they were finished, Lilith stood and opened the door, once again holding it open for Hana. They walked out of the back together, making casual conversation along the way.

As they entered the main store, Hana saw a man with black hair and a steely look in his eyes chatting with Ciara behind the counter. He caught Hana’s eye and held her gaze for long enough that Lilith was able to make it back to the counter, only looking away when Lilith walked into his vision.

As Hana walked back to Evelyn, her cheeks were tingling.

On the drive back to Hana’s apartment, Evelyn told her about the different people they’d be working with and what the dress code looked like.

“I’m gonna pack my stuff up and go home,” Evelyn said as they pulled into Hana’s parking spot. “I have some chores I need to do, and besides, it’s getting late.”

“Aw, that’s okay,” Hana said with a smile. “I have to put in my application anyway.”

After they went inside and Evelyn packed her stuff up, Hana saw her off at the door.

“Be careful on your way home, and text me once you get there,” Hana said, hands planted firmly on her hips as she stood in the doorway.

“Yeah, I’ll talk to you later,” Evelyn called with a wave over her shoulder, casting Hana a small smile over her shoulder.

Once Evelyn was down the stairs, Hana shut the door and made a beeline for the living room to drape herself over the back of the couch with a sigh. Emiko, her cat, jumped onto the cushions before her with a chirp, drawing a smile from Hana.

“I got an interview already, and I have to put in my application to start the formal hiring process,” Hana said as she scratched behind Emiko’s ear. “It’s looking promising so far!”

Emiko leaned into her hand, a purr rising from her chest.

“It went great! Everyone seems super nice, it’s awesome!” Hana’s smile pulled into a grin, her eyes twinkling with excitement. With a chuckle, she added, “I’ll give you your dinner, and then I’ll work on getting my application in.”

Rising from her slump over the couch, Hana went into the kitchen with Emiko hot on her heels. She grabbed a new can of wet food from its box in the pantry and set it on the counter, pulling the tab up and carefully opening the can the rest of the way. At the sound of the can hitting the counter and being opened up, Emiko jumped up with it, immediately nosing into the can in an attempt to steal a taste.

With a laugh, Hana pushed her head away and scooped a fourth of it into a food bowl. When Emiko realized she wouldn’t be able to take any straight from the can, she bumped her head against Hana’s shoulder.

“I know.” She laughed. “It won’t take long.”

Once she finished prepping the serving, Hana put the bowl down for Emiko and watched as her cat practically shoved her face into her bowl.

With that, Hana pushed the wet food can into a ziploc bag and put it into the fridge. She then went back to her laptop and worked on putting in her application for a position as a cashier. She then filled out her availability on paper, making sure to include the fact that she was also a full-time student.

The next day, she received a text that read, “This is Lilith. I’m texting you to let you know that your application was accepted. Here are the next steps you should take,” and it included the location that Hana would have to go to for her drug test.

She wasted no time in getting ready and heading over there for the test. She wasn’t thrilled to find out that this one — unlike the one for Mike Meyer’s, which used a mouth swab test — would require her to pee in a cup.

“Here’s the cup you should use,” the receptionist said as she handed a small cup to Hana. “If you get any urine on the side or overfill the cup, you’ll have to drink some water and try again.”

Hana nodded as she took the cup, grimacing slightly as she noted how small it was. She walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, dreading the idea of messing this up and having to try again later.

Aside from her bladder being a bit uncooperative due to nerves, it was actually easier than she’d anticipated.

Once she was done, she sent Evelyn a text that said, “My application was accepted. I just did the drug test!”

As usual, Evelyn responded quickly, saying, “Awesome! If your app was accepted, you’ve got nothing to worry about!” A thumbs up emoji punctuated the text, which brought a small smile to Hana’s face.

“What would the test have been like if I’d been, you know…”

“Oh, it would’ve been fine. I was when I had to take mine; the woman who took the cup from me didn’t even bat an eye lol.”

Hana gave a snort of laughter as she sent one last text while she got into her car. “It still must have been awkward. Anyways, I’m going to head out to get clothes for work. Text you later!”

She ended up buying four sets of clothes for work and a pair of comfortable black sneakers that would be solely for work. When she got home, she put the clothes in to wash and spent the rest of her day working on homework.

The following day, Hana received another text from Lilith that read, “Your drug test results came in. Looks good! If you have the time, please come in today so we can get you into the system and discuss your availability. Be sure to bring your state identification or driver’s license and your social security card.”

After eating breakfast, Hana dressed in her work uniform, put on her work shoes, and headed straight to Health Precision with her purse on her back and paperwork in hand.

When Lilith saw her, she smiled. “Already wearing the uniform? Did Evelyn tell you about that?”

Hana gave a sheepish laugh. “Yeah. I wanted to be ready for my first day.”

Lilith nodded with a slight smile, as though she was impressed, and walked Hana to the office. Once situated, they discussed Hana’s availability and got her information uploaded into the system.

“Well,” Lilith started once they were finished with that, “since you’re already prepared, why don’t we get you some field training? We won’t have you on the registers just yet, and you won’t have your own login or biometrics registered on them since you’re not in the system yet, but I would like for you to experience what facing will be like.”

“‘Facing’?” Hana asked, head tilted in curiosity.

“Yep,” Lilith confirmed. “It’s when you pull merchandise to the front of the shelves and make it look nice for the customers. Can you work on Sunday morning?”

Hana nodded. “Yeah, I’m free during the weekends.”

“Good,” Lilith said with a satisfied nod. “I’d like for you to come in at seven in the morning on Sunday. We’ll be putting up the new advertisement tags, and I’d like for you to familiarize yourself with the layout of the store. Oh, speaking of which, why don’t I give you a tour of the store?”

As they exited the back, Lilith began walking Hana through the store, pointing out the different sections of the store along the way. Once the tour was nearly done, they were stopped by an elderly woman with short hair, big glasses, and a kind look in her eyes.

“Hi, Lilith,” she said with a smile. “Who’s this? A new hire?”

“Hey Letty,” Lilith returned with a smile and a nod. “This is Hana. She’s a part of our team starting today.”

Letty then turned her attention to Hana, expression warm and welcoming. “Welcome to the team, Hana. I know you’ll do great here.”

Hana’s cheeks heated at that, and she dropped her gaze with a sheepish laugh.

“Thank you,” she said, lifting her gaze back to Letty’s. “I’m excited to be here.”

Letty laughed good-naturedly and continued on her way. Lilith offered a smile to Hana and continued to the front counter. From behind the counter, Evelyn caught Hana’s eye and smiled wide, eyebrows lifting twice in greeting.

“Astrid, this is Hana,” Lilith said, drawing the attention of a woman with curly strawberry blonde hair and freckles as she gestured to Hana. “She’s a new hire. Could you show her how to face the shelves?”

“Roger that,” she said. Then, directing her attention to Hana, she said, “How about we face the toy section? It’s the part of the store that gets the most messed up during the day, so we need to fix it up so that parents don’t get confused about prices.”

Hana glanced around the store, taking note of the six pillars, two of which had signs for scanning systems, while the other four had signs for fire extinguishers.

Astrid laughed, drawing Hana’s attention back to her. “Yeah,” she chuckled, “customers can check the prices themselves, but you’d be surprised how many come up here to ask about them.”

“Oh,” Hana said rather eloquently, one eyebrow raised slightly.

“Well, follow me,” Astrid said as she walked out from behind the counter. She paused, however, to look at Lilith. “You heading home, boss?”

“Yeah,” Lilith said with a soft laugh. “Once Hana is in the system, she can start her computer-based training, clocking in and out on her own, and she can register her biometrics for the registers. That’ll likely be next week, so for now, be sure to write down the times she works so that I can punch it in for her.”

“Roger that!” Astrid laughed. “See you tomorrow, Lilith.”

Lilith grabbed her things and waved goodbye to everyone on her way out.

“I’m going to show Hana how to face and identify items by their UPC codes, so just call me up if you need anything,” Astrid said to Evelyn, who nodded avidly and offered her a thumbs up.

With that, Astrid walked Hana to the back of the store, where the toys were set up. She reached out and grabbed a stuffed animal from the board games section.

“Do you see how this toy  _ obviously _ doesn’t go here?” she asked, turning it over in her hands to find the tag.

Hana nodded, and Astrid shifted closer to her, holding the tag up to show her the UPC barcode.

“Do you see the numbers on the bottom here? The last four on the tag will always match the last four on the shelf of its position. See?” She read the last four numbers out loud, walked to the stuffed animal section with Hana at her heels, and pointed to the tags on the shelves until she found the right one. “There it goes!”

With that, Astrid put the stuffed animal on the shelf with a wide smile. “We do have an easier method, but I always do this because it helps you get a lot more acquainted with where everything goes. Though, if you absolutely can’t find where the item goes, come up front and ask for the scanner. I’ll show you how to use it then.”

“Okay,” Hana said with a slight nod. “Thanks.”

“No prob,” Astrid chirped with a grin.

As Hana moved back to the beginning of the toys section to start working, Astrid gave her two thumbs up and turned to go back to the front.

By the end of her work, the shelf looked quite nice. The only problem was that there were three items that Hana couldn’t find the homes for. So, she gathered them up into her arms and carried them to the front.

“Are you looking for Astrid?” Evelyn asked when she saw Hana.

“Yeah, I can’t find the spots for these,” Hana said, lifting the items in question.

“Oh,” Evelyn leaned under the counter and pulled an object up, “I can show you how to use this!”

Evelyn then walked around to the other side of the counter, grabbed a piece of candy from the shelf, and looked at Hana.

“Here’s how you use this thing,” she said as she started navigating the system. “This is how you get into the screen to find where items go.”

Evelyn then pointed the scanner at the UPC code on the piece of candy, scanned it, and turned the screen back towards Hana.

“Do you see this number?” she asked, pointing to the number eighteen on the screen, which was below the item name and section it went in, and above the UPC code.

Hana nodded.

“That’s the position of the item. It corresponds to this on the tag.” Evelyn pointed to the number on the bottom right of one of the tags on the shelf. “You just find eighteen and…” Evelyn trailed off as she searched for it, continuing once she found it and put the candy away, “put it in its spot!”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Hana exclaimed with a smile.

“That’s my girl,” Evelyn laughed. “Always quick on the uptake.” She then held the scanner out to Hana. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Hana smiled and took the scanner. “I’ll come to you if I have any more questions.”

“All right. You’re killing it, by the way.” Evelyn flashed Hana a grin as she moved behind the counter once more.

With the scanner in hand, Hana went back to work.

Though using the scanner made things easier, she found that she liked the challenge of finding where things went the traditional way. It was like a puzzle that needed to be solved, and it was proving to be incredibly satisfying to find where items went like that.

One break and two hours of work later, the store was closing up and it was time for Hana to go home. She went out to her car with Evelyn trailer after her.

“I walked today,” Evelyn said with a sheepish laugh as she walked to the passenger’s side. “Mind giving me a ride?”

“I don’t mind,” Hana said as she climbed into the drivers side. “Maybe you should drive when you work the nightshift, though.”

Evelyn climbed into the passenger’s side and gave a sigh. “Yeah; I didn’t think of that, though.”

Hana turned a scrutinizing look to Evelyn. “How do you — a woman — not think that you should maybe drive at night? Do you just ‘not think’ of that often?”

“No!” Evelyn reached across the console in between them to swat at Hana’s shoulder. “I usually work during morning shifts, or at the very least, mid-shifts! Besides, I typically take the bus when it gets too dark, even during mid-shifts!”

“‘Mid-shift’?” Hana tilted her head inquiringly.

“Yeah. It’s typically an eleven in the morning to seven in the evening shift. It’s a word we use to describe what’s right in between a morning and evening shift.”

“Oh,” Hana drawled as she started the car up.

This drew a soft snort of laughter from Evelyn.

The rest of the drive was quiet, with both of them humming occasionally to songs that came on the radio.

Once Sunday rolled around, Hana had already worked three days and was finding herself to be enjoying this new job quite a lot. She was very familiar with the layout of the store already, after having been facing different sections of the store every day.

Today would be a little different. That wasn’t just including the fact that she was working an opening shift.

Hana showed up to work fifteen minutes early, and as a result, had to be let into the store. However, the one to let her in was the man with the dark hair and steely gaze.

Upon looking at his name tag, Hana realized that  _ this _ was Garrett.

“Hey,” he said in a surprisingly relaxed tone as he pulled the doors shut behind her.

“Hi,” Hana practically squeaked, bowing her head slightly to avoid his sharp gaze.

Garrett raised a brow at that, but said nothing about it.

Hana practically scurried to the back room, and while walking towards the office, came across Lilith as she walked out of it.

“Good morning,” Lilith said with a smile. She held a name tag out to Hana. “I finally got one made for you.”

Hana took it with a smile and pinned it to her shirt.

“Thanks,” she chirped.

“You’re welcome. Oh, before I forget; it seems you’re in the system now. You’ll be able to clock in and out on your own now, and we’ll also be able to register your biometrics so you can use your fingerprint to log into the registers.” Lilith gestured for Hana to follow her, and they walked to the front together. “This also means that your computer-based training sessions are also available for you to review, though that can happen later today, after you’ve had some experience with putting sales tags up.”

Once it was actually time for her shift to start, Lilith showed Hana how to clock in using her employee ID and password. She then walked her through registering her fingerprint for the registers; Hana chose to use her right thumb, as the fingerprint reader was on the right side of the screen.

Once they were done, Lilith pulled the tags that they would be using to advertise their sales out of a white box and began sorting through them.

“I want you to work with the food,” she said. “I’ll show you how to do it.”

Lilith talked Hana through how to find the different sections labeled on the paper, and how to find where the tags went up. Just like what Evelyn had told her before, the tags were numbered; they went up in the order of the numbers from left to right, top to bottom.

Putting tags up ended up being simple enough that, when Lilith came back to check in on Hana, she grinned and said, “Wow, you’re really fast with putting those up!”

Before Hana knew it, two hours had come and gone, and suddenly, she found herself looking up at Garrett.

“Lilith told me to come find you so that I could send you on your break,” he said. His eyes wandered around the aisle, and he gave a nod. “She said you’re quick and neat; I guess she was right.”

“Oh, thanks,” Hana stammered, feeling her face heat up at his words. “Where’s the break room?”

Garrett turned to look at the second floor of the store, a small space that only employees seemed to be allowed to use, given that it was only accessible through the back room.

“It’s the room to the left of those stairs, when you’re going up them,” he pointed to the space where the stairs seemed to be. “You can get to those stairs from the doors right next to the pharmacy.”

“Okay, thank you,” Hana stood up and bowed her head in thanks, reaching up to brush a stray strand of hair out of her face. “What do I do with my tags?”

Garrett raised a brow at that. “Just leave them here. You can come back to them after your break, if Lilith hasn’t already gotten to them.”

When Hana thanked Garrett one more time, he gave a small chuckle and shook his head.

She suddenly found herself wondering if she was being too polite.

The rest of the day was a blur. As it got later in the day, business picked up, and Lilith sent Hana to the office to work on her computer-based training so that she wouldn’t have to cashier before having been trained to.

At the end of her shift, when Hana was heading to the counter to clock out, Lilith called her over with a big smile. Next to her stood a woman with dark brown hair and a gently sloped nose.

“Hana, this is my boss, Felicia,” Lilith said. “Felicia, this is our newest hire. She’s a really quick learner!”

Felicia smiled and held her hand out, which Hana accepted; she was surprised when she felt how firm Felicia’s hold was when she shook her hand.

Then, she asked Hana a question, but all Hana heard, due to the noise in the store, was, “are you?” and her brain — for whatever reason — understood the question as being, “How old are you?”

“I’m 21,” she said in a rush.

Felicia looked taken aback for a moment, blinking a few times in surprise, before she let out a huff of a laugh.

“No,” she said soothingly, “I asked how you’re doing.”

“Oh,” Hana sputtered, face burning and head beginning to spin, “I’m good. How are you?”

“I’m doing well, myself,” Felicia offered Hana a reassuring smile, which did nothing to quell her desire to shrivel away and disappear on the spot.

She then turned back to Lilith and continued their earlier conversation, allowing Hana to skitter towards her previous destination to clock out and practically flee from the store.

As Hana walked out to her car after work, she saw Garrett getting into the driver’s side of a steel grey Honda Civic Sedan. He caught her eye from behind the windshield and gave a brief wave, which she sheepishly returned.

When she got home that day, Hana lay down on her bed and pulled her phone from her pocket. After skimming her short list of contacts, she decided to text someone with whom she didn’t work: Ezra. She pulled his contact up and sent him a text that read, “You know how I started working with Evelyn?”

After a beat, he responded, “Yeah. How’s that been? You’ve been working for a few days, right?”

“Yeah, four days,” she typed. “Lilith, the store manager is pretty nice. Actually, it seems like everyone is pretty nice. Even the intimidating manager, Garrett.”

“Oh?” Ezra sent. “I like intimidating. Is he cute? Lol”

Hana nearly dropped her phone on her face. Of course Ezra would ask something like that. She sat up in a rush, hair spilling over her shoulders and onto her phone screen as she typed.

“Ezra!” she sent. “I haven’t gotten a good look at him!”

His reply was instantaneous. “Yeah, well that doesn’t answer my question.”

“Fine, I’ll get a better look at him the next time I work. I think that’s Wednesday.”

“All righty. Let me know!” The winking emoji at the end of his message glared at her as she turned off her phone screen and put it on her side table.

Hana  _ knew _ this wasn’t for him. He was in a happy relationship with Owen, and had been for a couple of years now. He was doing this for her, and had been since shortly after her breakup two years prior.

Flopping back down onto her bed, Hana decided that a nap was due before she tackled her homework.

The next day, while driving to school, Hana thought she spotted Garrett’s car leaving the school.

_ Do we go to the same school? _ she wondered.

After pulling into her usual parking spot and turning her car off, she grabbed her backpack from the trunk, locked her car, and rushed to her class.

“Does Garrett attend this school?” she asked as she slid into her seat next to Evelyn. At Evelyn’s quizzical look, Hana hastily added, “I thought I saw his car leaving while I was driving in, is all.”

“Oh, did you?” Evelyn asked with a slight teasing undertone, now getting a thoughtful look as her voice took on a more serious tone. “Maybe he does. You should ask him next time you work with him.”

“What?” Hana exclaimed, swatting at Evelyn’s arm. “No way! What if that’s too weird?”

“You almost make me think that you don’t know how to socialize,” Evelyn laughed as she brushed Hana off.

“Fine,” Hana huffed, “I’ll ask him when I get a chance.”

When class ended, Hana and Evelyn met up with Ezra and Owen in the parking lot.

“It’s been a while since we’ve hung out,” Ezra said. “Especially long, if you consider how long it’s been since we’ve hung out at Hana’s place.”

“You’re just saying that because you want to see Emiko,” Hana shot back with a laugh and a roll of her eyes. “Why don’t you two get a cat? You always come to visit mine.”

“We have Haven,” Owen pointed out. “It’s hard to find a dog and a cat who would get along.”

“Oh yeah, and she’s a German Shepherd, right?” Evelyn asked with a smile. “My girls are a Siamese, a Bengal, and a Samoyed, which totally refutes your point. Not only did I find one cat who gets along with my girl, but I found  _ two _ .”

“Oh,” Ezra practically sang, pointedly ignoring Evelyn’s remark, “Freigha, Cleo, and Ivory are so cute! I'm so glad that Haven and Ivory get along so well; it makes going to the dog park  _ so _ much more fun!”

“What breed is Emiko?” Owen asked.

“She’s a Turkish Angora.” Hana grinned. “They’re a really friendly and adaptable breed.”

“Come on, let us visit her,” Ezra whined.

“Fine.” Hana kicked Ezra’s shoe. “Let’s go to my car.”

“Oh, I need to get my bike,” Evelyn said, pointing back towards the school.

“Well, we’ll be at my car,” Hana said as she, Ezra, and Owen started walking. “You know where I usually park, right? Just put your bike in the back.”

When they got to her car, she sat in the driver’s seat as Ezra and Owen sat together in the back; they were able to ride with her without worry for their own car, since they lived close enough to the school to walk comfortably in the morning. Once Evelyn arrived and put her bike in the back, she took her usual seat in the passenger’s side.

As was typical whenever they drove together, Ezra and Evelyn sang quite loudly, with Owen chuckling every now and then whenever Ezra’s tone deaf singing got particularly bad.

When they arrived at Hana’s apartment and got inside, they popped some popcorn and grabbed a charcuterie tray and some cans of soda from the fridge. They then sat on the floor around the coffee table with their homework out and the snacks and beverages gathered in the middle of the table.

Emiko kept circling around them, trying to see if she could nab a forgotten piece of popcorn or ham; though under Hana’s strict instruction, she was not to get any. Even Owen would give Ezra a look if he tried to let Emiko even  _ sniff _ a piece of popcorn.

“Why does Emiko like popcorn so much?” Evelyn asked with a laugh as Ezra popped the piece of popcorn into his mouth under Owen’s scrutinizing gaze.

“I don’t know,” Hana sighed, shaking her head as she plucked a grape from the charcuterie plate. “I just make it for when I’m watching movies and shows, and one day, she just decided that she wanted some. I caught her with her head shoved into the bowl; I think she was trying to see if she could eat one of the kernels. It’s a good thing I got there when I did.”

“Maybe she likes the smell,” Ezra said. “Kind of like how she wants ham because of how it smells?”

“Maybe.” Hana clicked to the next page on her virtual textbook and reached down to pet Emiko as she slipped between her and Evelyn’s legs.

As Ezra finished his homework, he grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, cycling through the channels until he found a b-rated horror movie to watch. He turned so that he was fully facing the TV and pressed his back into the front of the couch, stretching his legs out in front of him.

“Why do you even like those?” Evelyn asked with a snort. “They’re not even that good.”

“Yeah, there’s like,” Hana paused to think, “one or two  _ actually _ good horror movies out there.”

“Really?” Evelyn turned a confused look to Hana. “I think there’s at  _ least _ half a dozen.”

“That’s because you’re so easily frightened,” Owen said as he grabbed his Mr. Salt to sip from.

Hana gave a snort of laughter and leaned over the corner of the table to elbow Evelyn in the ribs, who responded by shoving her back to her side of the table.

“Yeah?” Ezra said, reaching over to grab the popcorn bowl and pulling it into his lap. “Well, I think they’re funny.”

Evelyn gave an exasperated laugh and turned to share a look with Hana, who only shook her head and looked back down at her homework.

The rest of the evening was filled with the sounds of their homework, the so-called horror movie, and Ezra’s laughter and commentary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of my first ever original works that I've actually written! I wrote it specifically for NaNoWriMo, but I had been planning to write it for a while for my mother ^^ If you enjoy it, please don't hesitate to leave a kudos and / or comment!


	2. Christmas Lights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With things settling in at Health Precision, Hana is sure to become more familiar with her co-workers. Not only that, but it ensures that she will have her first encounter with a customer who has a bad attitude.
> 
> Hana and Garrett finally start spending some time together outside of work -- under the suggestion of Evelyn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, there is a scene where a customer verbally abuses Hana in this chapter. It was hard for me to write, as it's based (almost word-for-word) on what happened to me.

Every day until Friday, Hana spent her workdays pouring over computer-based training sessions. More often than not, Hana found herself nodding off during the videos, or trying to skip them because she had read through the words on the screen faster than the narrator had been able to read them to her.

She couldn’t help the stifled cheer she let out when Lilith told her on Friday that she would be allowed to shadow Evelyn while she cashiered.

During their shared shift, Evelyn showed Hana how to use the register. At the end of her lecture regarding the various buttons on the screen and their uses, Evelyn pointed to a red button on the bottom left of the screen that said “Quick Open.”

“Do you see that?” she asked, glancing at Hana with a serious look on her face. “If you need to open the register due to some mixup with the change,  _ don’t _ use this button. This locks the system down and forces you to call the police because it’s only use is to catch burglars. You use this button instead.”

After navigating the menu, Evelyn pointed to a button that said “No Sale.”

“This pops the register open without any issues.” Evelyn pressed the button, and just as she said, the register popped open and the receipt printer spat out a small piece of paper that noted when the no sale happened. “You just throw this piece of paper away and then fix whatever mixup happened.”

“That’s good to know,” Hana said with a nod. “Thanks for the heads up.”

“Yeah,” Evelyn laughed, “the guy training me didn’t tell me that. He doesn’t work here anymore, in case you’re wondering.”

Hana snorted out a laugh at that.

“Oh,” Evelyn said as she looked at the time, “looks like it’s time for my break. I’ll call Garrett up so that you don’t get overwhelmed or something.”

When Garrett arrived at the front counter, Evelyn waved to Hana, thanked Garrett, and went upstairs to take her break.

“Have you taken your break yet?” Garrett asked as he watched Evelyn walk into the break room.

“Not yet, no,” Hana said with a shake of her head. “Should I go after she comes back?”

“Sure, if you want to,” Garrett shrugged.

As a customer came to the front and Garrett worked on ringing her order up, Hana stood by and wrung her hands together. Despite telling Evelyn that she would ask him about school, Hana had put it off all week. In fact, standing behind the counter with him — and  _ only _ him — made her want to go upstairs with Evelyn.

Instead, she stayed.

Once the customer was out of the store, Hana turned her attention to Garrett. Ezra’s question rang through her mind.

_ Is he cute? _

Looking at him now, with his sun-kissed skin, stern brown eyes, and messy, dark hair, Hana could say with certainty that he  _ was _ cute. The realization only made her cheeks heat up.

“Um,” Hana started, faltering slightly when Garrett turned his attention to her. “Do you attend classes at Lakeview College?”

Garrett observed her with an unreadable expression for what felt like hours. It made Hana regret having asked, and before she knew it, her mouth was moving in an attempt to salvage the situation she’d already begun to perceive as uncomfortable.

“I just thought I saw your car leaving the school parking lot while I was driving in, is all,” she said quickly, face burning hot enough that she was starting to feel dizzy.

Finally, Garrett left his statuesque state.

He blinked and nodded. “Yeah, I do. I’m studying to go into software engineering. What about you?”

“I’m studying anesthesiology,” Hana said, her cheeks tingling and ears hot.

“Oh, medicine,” Garrett said with a nod, the corners of his lips twitching up into a ghost of a smile. “Are you enjoying it so far?”

“Yeah, I am,” Hana chirped, the heat in her face finally going down. “I have to volunteer at the hospital every now and then. Oftentimes, it’s two or three days a week, so it’s a good thing I only work four days here.”

Garrett’s eyebrows lifted slightly at that. “Well, be sure that you’re not overworking yourself. Can’t have you burning yourself out.”

“I can handle the workload, so you don’t need to worry.” Hana smiled. “Though, the gesture is appreciated.”

Just then, Evelyn came back from her break, flashing Hana a grin and a wink when she saw her.

Hana ended up missing Garrett’s smile in response to her words.

“Thanks, Garret,” she said as she walked behind the counter. “I can handle it from here.”

Garrett nodded to her and walked back out into the aisles. Evelyn turned a knowing grin to Hana when he was out of sight.

“So, you two had a good chat, I see,” she said, lifting her eyebrows twice in succession.

“We just talked about school,” Hana said a little too quickly. “I finally asked him if he attends our college, he said that he does, and we talked about the programs we’re in.”

“So,” Evelyn drawled, “a good chat.”

“Oh, shut up,” Hana giggled and swatted at Evelyn’s arm. “I’m going on my break, but be prepared to train me some more when I come back.”

“All righty,” Evelyn trilled. “Enjoy your break.”

One week into December, Hana found herself sitting at an indoor table next to the doors of a Galaxy Coffee near her apartment complex with a hot mocha held between her hands. She was finding that it was finally cold enough to need a scarf and gloves. She was even considering getting earmuffs, though the thought of the woolen fabric getting caught in her earrings was enough to turn her away from the idea; her hair did a decent enough job of shielding her ears from the cold, anyway.

As she sat there, Evelyn, Ezra, and Owen walked in. Ezra and Evelyn talked avidly about the various activities their dogs had engaged in while at the dog park together while Owen had his nose buried in his scarf and his arms wrapped tightly around himself.

Hana had to cover her mouth to stifle her snort at the sight of Owen being bundled up so tightly. It looked like he was wearing three layers, in addition to his scarf, winter hat with a puff at the top — no doubt Ezra’s idea —, earmuffs, gloves, and winter boots. It was such a different look from his typical punk-ish attire, and it hit Hana like a punch to the gut every time she saw it.

When they spotted her, Evelyn and Ezra gave enthusiastic waves, while Owen simply lowered his head in greeting.

They went to the counter and placed their orders, Evelyn first, and Ezra and Owen ordering together behind her. With their orders placed, the three of them went to join Hana at her table.

“Thanks for inviting us out,” Ezra said as he and the other two sat down, causing Hana to roll her eyes.

“As if I’d willingly come to a cafe to be by myself,” she laughed. “But yeah, no problem.”

“You  _ study _ here sometimes,” Ezra shot back with exasperation and a grin. “Of course you’d — how did you put it? — ‘willingly come to a cafe to be by yourself’.”

“Whatever,” Hana said good-naturedly, though she did roll her eyes again.

“Anyways,” Evelyn cut in, “Ezra got this awesome new horror game.”

Ezra laughed at that. “Oh, come on, we all know that you couldn’t play a horror game to save your life.”

“Well, yeah,” Evelyn jabbed Ezra’s side, earning a yelp from him as he nearly flew out of his chair. “Horror games are more immersive than horror movies, so I can’t play them. They scare me too much. Anyways, tell her about it.”

“I can’t just  _ tell _ her about it,” Ezra said in mock offense. “She has to play it while I watch. Anyways,” he turned his attention to Hana, “it’s a psychological horror game, and it’s  _ actually _ scary. It doesn’t use any cheap tricks like jumpscares to get you, just a creeping sense of dread, like you’re being stalked or something.”

“Ooh,” Hana hummed. “That sounds really cool. Wanna bring it over some time?”

“I have time today, if you’re free,” Ezra said with a grin. “Then we can bring everyone over and scare their pants off.”

He gave a laugh, which drew laughter from everyone else. A woman brought their coffees to them while they chatted, and they thanked her.

“It won’t be as scary to watch Hana play than it would be to play the game myself,” Evelyn said.

“Sure, but you’ll be saying that from behind a blanket you’ve pulled up to your chin for easy coverage when we get there,” Hana teased.

This caused everyone — save for Evelyn, who swatted at Hana’s shoulder — to burst into laughter.

After Hana finished her coffee, they decided to head over to her place so that she could play the game for them.

Ezra was right; it really was scary. It even got Owen to jump a couple of times, Hana noticed with a chuckle. As Hana had predicted, Evelyn had pulled a blanket up to her chin and would pull it over her eyes whenever she thought that something scary was about to happen.

The only downside to playing scary games are the dreams that come with them.

Hana dreamt that she was the character in the game that night.

It was two weeks until Christmas, and Hana could already say that the holiday season was chaotic. There were droves upon droves of people who came in to buy treats, gifts, and other things that were going on sale for Christmas.

Why there were this many people getting Christmas shopping done at a  _ drugstore _ was beyond Hana.

Since Hana had arrived today, she, Garrett, and Ciara had all needed to be at the registers to cashier consistently. They hardly had enough time to get any work done outside of cashiering; Hana was just grateful that there wasn’t much that Lilith had asked them to do outside of satisfying customer needs.

When there was a lull in the customers, Hana took a look around the front of the store, immediately taking note of the lack of shopping carts in the bay.

“I’m going to grab the carts from outside,” she said to the others.

“Okay,” Ciara said as Garrett simply nodded. “We can handle things up here while you do that.”

It took Hana two trips to get all the carts, but as she gathered carts during her second trip, a woman began calling for her from acrossing the parking lot. Hana recognized her as a regular who frequently came in to buy wine.

“Can you get a wheelchair for this gentleman?” she asked as Hana approached. “He can’t walk on his own.”

“I don’t know if we have any, but I can take a look for you,” Hana said.

“You have a pharmacy,” the woman spat. “Of course you’ll have something for him to use.”

Hana turned back to the carts she had gathered and pushed them into the building. Once they were put away, she approached Garrett and asked, “Do you know if we have a wheelchair that a customer could use?”

This earned her a skeptical look from him, though it quickly left her as he turned his gaze to the growing line at the registers.

“We have wheelchairs for purchase,” he said as he waved the customer at the front of the line to him, “none for customers to use.” Before Hana could go outside to let the woman know, he said, “Could you help us over here?”

With her thoughts going back to the man who needed assistance, Hana returned to her register and started helping customers. As she wished her first customer well after their transaction, Hana spotted the woman assisting the elderly man into the store; when their eyes met, the woman fixed her with a nasty glare.

Despite the pit of dread this dropped into her gut, Hana didn’t have time to dwell on it as the next customer came to her register.

Once the rush passed, Ciara stretched and looked at Garrett. “I’m going to go on my break,” she said. “Call me down if you need any help.”

Garrett only nodded to her, and she walked to the back room.

Not even five minutes after she left, the woman who had asked about the wheelchair walked over to Hana’s register and slammed a box of wine on the counter, snapping Hana’s attention to her.

“You never came back with a wheelchair like I asked,” the woman snapped.

“I’m sorry,” Hana said, gingerly taking the box of wine and scanning it, “we got hit by a huge rush and—”

“That man could have fallen and hurt himself,” the woman’s tone was rising, her words spilling out faster and faster as she grew more agitated.

She pulled her ID out of her purse and threw it on the counter. She continued speaking as Hana took her ID and typed her date of birth into the system.

“What if that man was your grandpa?” the woman spat. “Would you have just let him walk in here on his own, even if it meant he might get hurt? No, I bet you would have helped him, so why wouldn’t you help a stranger in need?

“Do you want me to tell your manager about what happened, or will you tell him yourself? He’s right over there; I can call him over for you.”

Hana shook her head, her cheeks tingling with shame.

“How irresponsible,” the woman said in a scathing tone as she shoved her credit card into the chip reader with so much force that the counter rattled. “You’d better hope that man makes it out of here okay, or you’re getting sued.”

Once she was finished paying, and before Hana could ask if she wanted her receipt, the woman tore her credit card out of the slot, snatched her ID and wine off of the counter, and stormed out of the store, throwing a glance to Garrett and muttering as she did so.

Hana’s face was burning, her eyes stinging with barely-contained tears, even as another customer came to the counter and placed a package of crayons down. She lowered her head to hide the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes and nodded hastily when the woman’s friendly smile turned to a concerned frown and she asked if she was okay.

The transaction went on without any further questioning and it was over without a hitch, though Hana felt dangerously close to breaking down once it was over. She turned to Garrett, breath quivering and tears clinging to her eyelashes as her bottom lip quivered.

He immediately looked concerned and  _ angry _ .

“I think,” Hana started, her voice trembling, “I need to take my break a little bit early, if that’s okay. I’m sorry.”

Garrett’s expression was grim, but he nodded and took a deep breath to steady himself.

“Go ahead,” he said in a controlled voice. “Take all the time you need.”

Hana went to the restroom and let her tears flow, a sob bursting from her chest as she practically slammed the stall door behind herself.

She pulled her phone from her pocket and called Evelyn. It only rang twice before she picked up, but the few seconds before that felt like hours for Hana.

“Hello?” Evelyn said, tone laced with concern. “You never call; is everything okay?”

Hana told her what had happened, her sobs making her words nearly incomprehensible.

“I know, it’s stupid to cry about something like this,” Hana said, squeezing her eyes shut. “I think I know what’s going on; this one is a weepy one, isn’t it?”

That drew an uncertain laugh from Evelyn. “It’s not stupid to cry when someone yells at you for something that’s not even your fault, but yeah, you’re probably right. It  _ is _ about that time for you, huh?”

“Yeah,” Hana half-laughed-half-sobbed. “Am I right in thinking that an ambulance should have been called for that man?”

“Oh, you’re definitely right. He shouldn’t have even been brought into the store, unless it  _ was _ to call an ambulance. Makes me wonder where his family is, you know, why he doesn’t have someone taking care of him.”

“Yeah,” Hana nodded, taking a deep breath and getting to work on wiping the tears from her face. “Thanks for letting me rant.”

Evelyn laughed again, this time with more confidence. “You don’t have to thank me; we’re best friends. My ears are always open, and I’m always down to talk some shit.”

A laugh bubbled up in Hana’s chest at that. “Well, I’ve gotta go wash my face now. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Yeah, talk to you later,” Evelyn chirped. “Glad you’re feeling better now!”

Hana hung up and pocketed her phone, leaving the stall she’d hid herself in and going to splash some cold water over her face.

_ Man _ , she thought,  _ what a day _ .

When Hana went back downstairs, business seemed to have slowed down once more, if Garrett’s agitated pacing behind the counter was any indicator. He only gave pause in his movements when he saw her approaching the counter.

“Are you okay?” he asked, concern once again overriding the upset he was clearly feeling.

“Yeah,” Hana nodded, “thanks for letting me step away for a bit.”

Garrett nodded and went back to his pacing.

“That stupid drunk,” he sneered towards the door the woman had left from.

Hana’s chest felt warm and light, even in spite of Garrett’s harsh words. It only showed to her that he cared, behind that hardened front he put up; it was nice in a way she couldn’t describe, nice in a way that was different from her family or friends caring about her.

“Why did she even bring that customer in?” he asked, gaze stuck on something outside. “He looks about ready to keel over.”

His gaze flitted towards Hana and he gave a huff, the storm in his eyes calming slightly.

“That woman was wrong,” he said, “It wasn’t your responsibility to go and get a wheelchair for him. She should have called an ambulance, not dump his care onto us. You didn’t do anything wrong, and I’m sorry for not stepping in to defend you.”

Hana nodded, nearly feeling ready to cry again — though this time, it would accompany a different feeling entirely.

Garrett then pulled out his phone and went outside, no doubt to call an ambulance for the man himself.

After the events of that day, Garrett made sure to always send Hana away from the counter when he saw that woman enter the store.

One week before Christmas was even more hectic than the last week had been. They ended up having to refill cash from the registers — or even exchanging big bills in the drawers for smaller ones stored in the safe — so many times.

At one point, Garrett even needed to swap some of his bigger bills for some smaller ones from Hana’s drawer. They ended up reaching into the drawer at the same time as she put the twenties he’d handed her away and he reached for some fives, and Garrett’s pinky brushed against Hana’s.

It sent a bolt of electricity up her arm that nearly made her brain short-circuit, immediately halting her movements.

“Thanks,” Garrett said once he grabbed what he needed, unaware of the fact that Hana’s brain was buffering so hard she’d nearly escaped the physical realm.

“Yeah,” Hana said, belatedly realizing that she still needed to close the drawer.

On her lunch break, she sent Evelyn a text that said, “Garrett and I touched hands,” with a couple of flushed emojis decorating the end of the message.

“Oh my god,” Evelyn replied. “Just ask him out already. It’s been like a month already, and you’re still pining like crazy. At least do something about it.”

“What if he doesn’t feel the same way I do?” Hana typed back.

“You don’t know that,” Evelyn sent. “Just try. Or ask him if he wants to go to the Festival of Lights on your next day off.”

“Fine,” Hana responded, thinking the idea seemed friendly enough without being too obvious.

When she got back from her break, there was already enough of a rush that she immediately had to clock in to help with it. When she was ready, she got to work on helping with the customers.

Within fifteen minutes, the activity had cleared. Chewing the inside of her cheek, Hana turned to Garrett and found him already eyeing her. His lips twitched into a ghost of a smile and he bowed his head in a subtle nod.

“Thanks,” he said.

“Oh, no problem,” Hana said. “I was wondering if,” she paused to take a steadying breath, “you wanted to go to the Festival of Lights on the twentieth?”

This caused Garrett to blink in surprise, the subtle smile he wore slipping from his face.

It made Hana’s heart clench, and she found herself wondering if she’d made the wrong decision.

“Sure, if I have time,” Garrett said before Hana could  _ really _ start overthinking the situation. “I’ll see what my homework situation looks like by then.”

“Oh,” Hana said, causing Garrett to smile, though this one was more obvious than many of the ones he’d shown her prior to now. Cheeks growing warm, Hana hastily ejected some receipt paper from the printer, tore it off, and grabbed a pen to scribble down her phone number and name. “Here’s my phone number, so you can contact me then.”

Garrett laughed as he took the paper. He then turned away, towards the register he had been working on, throwing a wide smile towards Hana as he did so; his eyes were so bright that it made her heart flutter.

“I’m going to close this register, okay?” he said. “Call me up if you need anything.”

Hana only nodded, feeling weightless.

When he was gone, Hana turned towards the store to see a man waiting in line. He offered a huge smile as he walked to her register.

“How interesting,” he laughed, “I haven’t seen Garrett laugh like that in a long time.”

“Oh, really?” Hana asked as she began scanning and bagging his items.

“Oh, yes,” he said with a fervent nod, pulling his wallet from his pocket to pay. “You see, he had a rough breakup a few months ago; it really did a number on him. I suppose you might be doing something to help him.”

This new bit of information made Hana feel dizzy, but she smiled anyway. “Well, I do hope that I’m doing something to help him.”

“I hope so too,” he said with a wink. “You’ve got to heal from a broken heart eventually.”

Shortly after he left, Hana’s phone buzzed in her pocket. When she pulled it out to check, she saw that it was a message from an unknown number that read, “Hey, it’s me.”

She grinned at her phone and saved his number. She then pulled up Evelyn’s contact and messaged her to let her know that it sounded like she and Garrett would be going to the Festival of Lights together on the twentieth.

Evelyn responded with a simple, “Score!”

When Hana got home that night, she received another message from Garrett that read, “So, 8 pm on Sunday?”

Trying to keep her overwhelming excitement from spilling into her message, she responded, “Yeah, that’ll work. Are we meeting up there?”

“Sure, that works for me,” he responded after a moment.

“Okay,” she sent. “I’ll see you then?”

“Yeah. See you then.”

Hana waited outside of the entrance to the festival, fiddling with the end of her scarf while waiting for Garrett to arrive. She hadn’t been there long; it was just that she had a habit of arriving at meetups — and even work — fifteen minutes early. It seemed that Garrett had a similar perspective, as she had only been waiting five minutes when she saw him approaching from the parking lot.

“Hey,” he said when he was within earshot.

“Hi,” Hana responded, taking in what his style was like when he wasn’t wearing his work uniform.

A black turtleneck with a coat pulled over it and a scarf bundled around his neck, and it seemed that he forewent gloves in favor of keeping his hands warm in his pockets. He wore simple dress shoes instead of winter boots, though whether that was because of the occasion, or because it was his normal choice was left to Hana’s imagination.

Though she couldn’t see his mouth past his scarf, Hana could see a smile in his eyes.

“Are you ready?” he asked, gesturing towards the festival with a nod of his head.

When Hana nodded, he started walking towards the entrance to the festival, pausing to glance back towards her so she could catch up and walk alongside him.

“What do you want to do first?” Hana asked, turning to look up at Garrett.

“Well, there’s going to be a live performance in an hour,” he said, watching her with an unreadable expression as they walked underneath the sparkling lights. “Before that, do you want to take a look around? There are plenty of lovely sights.”

“Oh, yeah,” Hana grinned. “I’m sure there’s lots to look at.”

As they walked around, Hana looked at all the displays with awe. There were so many amazing displays set up, from dragons, to temples overlooking the water, to even gardens.

About fifteen minutes before the performance, Garrett tapped Hana’s arm with his index finger.

“Do you want to take a look at the souvenirs?” he asked when he had her attention.

“Oh, they have those here?” she asked excitedly, nodding fervently in response when he dipped his head to confirm.

As they approached the booths, Hana spotted some lotus flower lights that immediately drew her in. They were made of fabric, with a single light in the center, and they came in all sorts of colors, from yellow, to white, to purple, and pink.

“Can I test this out?” Hana asked the woman behind the booth while pointing to one of the pink lights.

When the woman nodded with a laugh, Hana picked it up and turned it over in her hands, half admiring the details, and half searching for the switch to turn it on. When she managed to find it and turn the light on, she looked up at Garrett with stars practically dancing in her eyes.

Garrett only smiled at her, the look in his eyes softening, before he turned to the woman behind the booth.

“How much is that?” he asked, pulling his wallet from his pocket.

“Wait, what?” Hana sputtered, earning a chuckle from him.

“It’s seven dollars,” the woman responded with a smile. “Aren’t they pretty?”

“Yeah,” Garrett turned to glance at Hana, “they are.”

He then pulled a ten dollar bill out of his wallet and paid the woman, thanking her when she handed him his change.

“Do you want a bag?” she asked.

Garrett looked at Hana expectantly, and she nodded mechanically in response.

“Thank you,” Hana said as she slipped the lotus flower light into the bag while they walked away from the booth.

“It’s no problem,” he said with a smile, eyes forward. Then, he turned to look down at her. “Are you ready for the performance? It’s this way.”

Garrett started in the direction of the stage, with Hana falling into his pace once more. They picked a pair of seats in the front.

Hana ended up humming along to the music she recognized during the performance, her chest warm and cheeks tingling as she swayed gently to the music.

During the whole festival, she was so focused on taking in the sights before her that she didn’t even notice that Garrett was watching her take everything in with a soft fondness in his eyes.

“Thanks for tonight,” Hana said as they walked back to their cars at the end of the night.

“No problem,” Garrett said. “It was fun.”

“I’ll see you later?” Hana asked, glancing up to him.

“Yeah,” he responded with a nod, turning to look down at her. “See you later. Text me when you get home, okay? Just to let me know you make it back all right.”

“Okay,” she chirped, sending him a wave as she walked towards her car.

When Hana got home, she immediately went to clear a spot on her nightstand for the lotus flower light to go. Emiko hopped up onto the nightstand to give the new item a sniff.

“Hey baby,” Hana said as she scratched Emiko behind the ears. “I had a lot of fun tonight.”

She smiled and sat down on her bed, pulling her phone from her pocket and sending Garrett a text that read, “I’m home safe. You?”

She set her phone down beside her to pet Emiko when she jumped onto the bed as well, though she snatched her phone up when it buzzed, only to see that it was Evelyn who had texted her.

“How was tonight?” she asked.

Hana huffed out a laugh and shook her head, sending back, “It was a lot of fun! The lights were so pretty and the live performance was really good.”

“That’s good,” Evelyn sent. “Any souvenirs? Like a goodbye kiss?”

“No kisses,” Hana sent with a roll of her eyes. “But he did buy me something.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“A pink lotus flower light. I guess he noticed that I liked it.”

“That’s honestly so cute!” Evelyn put a heart at the end of the message, earning another laugh from Hana.

Though, it was at that moment that she received a text from Garrett that read, “That’s good. I made it home as well.”

“That’s good,” Hana replied. “I had a lot of fun tonight, so thanks again.”

“I did too. Thanks for inviting me.”

When Hana went to bed that night, she dreamt of sparkling lights, soft laughter, and gentle music.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	3. Fireworks and Gifts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On Christmas Eve, Hana receives a wonderful gift, and she gives a simple one to Garrett. Then, on New Year's Eve, a chance meeting occurs...

Hana worked a mid-shift on Christmas Eve, which happened to also be a freight day. Due to that, she would also be working with Garrett. The night before her shift, she prepared a palm-sized pouch with some of her homemade no-bake and chocolate chip cookies for him, as sort of a thank-you gift for the lotus flower light.

It was already snowing while Hana was driving to work, though she couldn’t help but sigh in relief when she realized that it wasn’t sticking.

At the beginning of her shift, however, Lilith called her into the office while a woman with long, curled blonde hair and big, brown eyes named Isabella watched the registers.

Hana entered the office cautiously, holding the door on her way in so that it wouldn’t swing shut and set her nerves more on edge then they already were.

The last time she was called to the office at the beginning of her shift was when her manager at Mike Meyer’s was telling her that the job wasn’t a good fit for her.

“What would you say,” Lilith started when the door was closed, “about working as a shift supervisor?”

Hana paused in her movements to sit down and blinked in surprise. “I’m sorry?”

Her shock drew a delighted laugh from Lilith, who gestured for her to sit all the way down. Hana did so and leaned forward, her nerves buzzing with something other than nervous tension.

“You’re a good worker, and you’re really quick at picking up on things,” Lilith said. “You’re already able to do a good portion of what a shift supervisor can do, and from what I’ve seen, you’re good at working with people and guiding others to a common goal. Remember when I first hired you, I asked you what a team meant to you?”

Hana nodded.

“Do you remember what you said?”

“I said that a team is a group of people who collaborate to work towards a common goal,” Hana said, “and also compensate for each other’s strengths and weaknesses and balance each other out.”

“That’s right.” Lilith nodded, her eyes twinkling. “And now, seeing you working with others and pushing them not only to work where they’re strong, but also work on improving their weaknesses, has shown me that you’ll make a good supervisor. That, and your teammates respect you a lot. I feel like making you a leader on our team will provide great things for us.”

Hana smiled wide and nodded. “You think so? Well, I’d love to take you up on your offer!”

“Wonderful,” Lilith said, her lips pulling into a wide grin. “I’ll contact my boss and let her know. Merry Christmas.”

Lilith winked at Hana and turned to her computer.

“A few weeks ago, I was considering telling you how to pick out work qualities that you’d like to have,” Lilith said as she started typing, “but I can see you’ve already done that. You’ve already observed qualities that you admire in your teammates, and adopted them for yourself. You’re a social chameleon, aren’t you?”

“I guess I am,” Hana laughed sheepishly.

“That’s a good trait to have.” Lilith turned to give Hana a smile. “Felicia will contact you when she’s ready to set up an interview with you.”

“‘An interview’?” Hana echoed.

Lilith nodded. “To be promoted to a leadership position within the company, you need to be interviewed by my boss. Are you ready for that?”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Hana said with a nod. “Thank you for this opportunity.”

This brought yet another smile to Lilith’s face. “Of course.”

When Lilith turned back to her screen, Hana left the office and went straight to work.

Once the morning shift was over and Isabella went home, Lilith spent some time talking to the others about what they needed to do for today’s shift. While they were talking, a woman with bright red hair and green eyes walked in with a little boy who had messy black hair and big brown eyes on her hip.

When Lilith spotted them, she smiled and paused her current conversation to turn to them.

“Hey, honey,” she said sweetly, and then lowered her gaze to the boy. “Hey, love. Mommy will be done in a couple of minutes, and then we can go home and start making cookies for Santa Claus, okay?”

The woman laughed at the cheer that drew from the child. His bright smile seemed to pull smiles from those around him, even customers who were just walking past.

Lilith laughed and turned back to her conversation with Garrett, Astrid, and Ciara.

The woman saw Hana and smiled, giving a nod of a greeting while the boy on her hip played with the ends of her long hair.

“Hello,” she said, “I’m Lilith’s wife, Scarlett, and this is our son, Lucas. Are you a new hire?”

“Nice to meet you,” Hana said. “I’m Hana. And, yeah, I just started working here last month.”

Scarlett nodded, turning to run her fingers through Lucas’s hair. “Lilith is really proud of what she has here. I’m sure you’re already a great addition to the team. How are you liking it so far?”

“I’m loving it here,” Hana chirped. “The team is great and Lilith is an awesome manager. She really sets a good, friendly atmosphere that everyone else seems to match. It’s really nice.”

Scarlett laughed at that. “Yeah, Lilith has always been good with leading people. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”

She turned her attention to Lilith, who was finishing up with her conversation and clocking out.

“I’ll see you another time,” she said, turning her attention back to Hana as Lilith approached them. “It was really nice meeting you. And have a very merry Christmas.”

With that, the two of them left, tossing waves to everyone over their shoulder with a chorus of “merry Christmas”s chasing after them.

Hana liked working on the floor; it always made her day go by faster when she was moving from one place to another. Before she knew it, her shift was over and she was grabbing her things from her locker and clocking out. She made sure to find Garrett in electronics before she left.

“Hey,” he said when he saw her. “Going home?”

Hana nodded, her stomach twisting up at the thought that Garrett might find her gesture strange.

“Before I go,” she pulled the neatly-wrapped pouch from her purse and held it out to him, “I wanted to give this to you. Sort of as a thank-you gift for the Festival of Lights, and a Christmas gift.”

The corners of Garrett’s lips curled into a barely-suppressed smile, though his eyes seemed to be smiling more than he was allowing himself to; it caused all of Hana’s previous tension to melt out of her. He reached out and gently pulled the gift from her hand.

“Thanks,” he said after a moment, his eyes still glued to the gift. “I’ll open it when I get home and let you know what I think.”

Hana smiled and nodded. “I hope you like it. Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas,” Garrett said with a nod, the smile never quite leaving his eyes.

When Hana walked out of the store, she noticed with a pit of dread in her stomach that the snow had begun to stick while she was working.

Driving home was a bit scary, but she made it to the warmth of her apartment safely. She only slid once, but it wasn’t enough to cause any accidents.

Hana spent the rest of the day bundled up in blankets, playing one of her favorite games.

She hadn’t even realized how much time had passed until about half an hour after the store would have closed, when Garrett texted her saying, “The cookies were delicious. Thank you.”

The small squeal of delight that she let out was enough to cause Emiko to quickly lift her head from her doze on the coffee table.

Three days after Christmas, Hana received a text from Evelyn that said, “Do you talk to Garrett about the video games you play?”

“Yeah,” Hana sent. “Why?”

“Oh my god.” Evelyn sent a few laughing emojis. “I caught him playing on his DS at work. He shut it and put it in his pocket so fast when he saw me, I think I gave him a heart attack.”

“Does he not normally play games at work?”

“No. He stopped playing games at all a few months ago. I’m not sure why, but it was about the time when he really closed up, too.” Evelyn sent a thinking emoji separately from her text.

Hana stared at her phone, recalling the conversation she’d had with one of their regulars when he saw Garrett laughing with Hana.

_ “You see, he had a rough breakup a few months ago; it really did a number on him. I suppose you might be doing something to help him.” _

Was she really helping him heal from that?

It was a nice thought, wasn’t it?

On New Year’s Eve, Hana sat in the gazebo that overlooked a lake at the park near her apartment, a coffee in hand and eyes turned to the stars. It was about ten minutes until the new year; she could hear chatter in the city, where the masses were gathered for the celebration.

As she sat there, a shuffle near the entrance to the gazebo caught her attention.

“Hey,” Garrett’s voice said before she could even turn her attention to him.

“Hi,” Hana said, turning to smile at him.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” He moved to sit next to her, a coffee held in his hand as well.

“I wasn’t expecting for you to show up here either,” she laughed, “but I guess life is full of pleasant surprises.”

“Well,” Garrett started, reaching into his coat pocket, “I wanted to give this to you as a New Year’s gift. If I didn’t see you today, I was planning to give it to you at work.”

Hana gave a small laugh, moving to pull a small, neatly wrapped box from her own pocket just as Garrett pulled one from his. “You have my phone number; you could just give me a call and ask to meetup.”

Garrett’s lips pulled into a sheepish smile at that, his eyes briefly glancing away from Hana. “I could. Yet,” he turned his gaze back to her, “here we are.”

They exchanged their gifts and waited until the New Year to open them.

“You open yours first,” he said, drawing a laugh from Hana.

After fiddling with the small box to find the seam, she opened it carefully, so as to not tear it. When she pulled it open, a small charm stared up at her, one she instantly recognized as a piece to a matching set from one of her favorite video games she kept on her keys. She blinked up at Garrett in surprise, earning a laugh from him.

“I saw that you had the set, but were missing this last piece,” he said, gaze shifting to look at the fireworks outside over the water, their lights creating brilliant spectacles on the lake’s surface.

Hana smiled wide, a burst of warmth blossoming in her chest.

“Thank you,” she said, reaching out to brush a hand over his shoulder, which caused him to chuckle and lean slightly into her touch. “It’ll find a happy home with the rest of the set. Now open yours!”

Garrett snorted out a laugh at that, turning his attention to the equally small box in his hand. When he went to open it, he mirrored Hana’s method of opening hers; though his hands seemed unsteady, like he wasn’t used to using this much care with opening gifts.

“You can just tear it open,” Hana laughed as she bumped her shoulder against his.

Garrett gave a small huff at that, but continued in his quest to open the box with the same care Hana had used earlier, and though it took him longer to open his, it eventually came open. When he saw the charm, he turned to look at Hana with a similar look she no doubt had when she saw hers.

“We talk about this game a lot, and you get really excited when we do, so I figured you would like it,” she said, her cheeks beginning to tingle. It was funny, but the two charms they’d exchanged were from the same game series. “I guess great minds think alike?”

Garrett laughed and nodded. “I guess they do.

“Thank you,” his tone was softer when he spoke those words.

For the rest of the night, they watched the fireworks and chatted softly about their plans and desires for the new year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	4. Moving Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hana gets the displeasure of meeting the woman who told Garrett that he wasn't worth loving -- and she gives him his power back. Afterwards, they find each other at school during study sessions and decide to hang out more outside of work and school.

Hana’s new year was not so fortunate. Her interview with Felicia had gone well, and she’d been promoted to shift supervisor; however, when she went out to her car to drive to work three days after the New Year, she was devastated to find that it wasn’t working. She called the store in a panic, and it rang five times before Lilith picked up.

“Thank you for calling Health Precision. My name is Lilith, how may I help you?” she said.

“Lilith, it’s me,” Hana said. “My car broke down, so I might be a little late.”

“Oh?” Lilith said. “That’s okay. I’ll stick around until you get here.”

Hana nodded, only to realize that Lilith couldn’t see her. “Okay, thank you. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

She ended up taking the bus to get to work, purse clutched to her chest and head bowed.

When she got there and clocked in, Lilith pulled her and Garrett aside, leaving Isabella to watch the front.

“Garrett, I’m going to have you train Hana on shift supervisor tasks,” Lilith said. “I’ve written down everything I want you to train her on, so check out the to-do list at the front if you’re confused about anything.

“Isabella is here to watch the registers in the meantime. If she needs any help, I want Hana to answer the call; that is, unless she needs a manager override or something. Since you were recently put in the system as a shift supervisor, it’ll take a few days for the system to fully register the change. Once it does, you will receive new computer-based training sessions to do.”

With that, Lilith left them to their work. Everything went smoothly, and since Hana knew how to check in vendor merchandise and check merchandise for expired goods, the training wasn’t too difficult.

Once they sent Isabella to her lunch, Garrett stayed behind the registers to show Hana how to get the expired or damaged goods ready to ship back to the warehouse. Hana picked up on it fairly quickly and easily took it over while Garrett moved to watch the register so she could work on it without disturbance.

When there were no customers, the two of them chatted about video games that they enjoyed.

It went well for a while, until a woman with long, straight dark hair, and sharp brown eyes walked in. Her red-painted lips twisted into a sneer when she saw Garrett, and though his posture remained relaxed and his expression cool, Hana could tell that there was a sudden spark of tension in the air.

“You’re  _ still _ working here?” she jeered.

“That I am,” he said, a quick glance tossed to Hana from the corner of his eye.

The woman noticed his glance and turned her attention to Hana, apparently seeing meaning in the look.

“You’re a new face,” she scoffed, eyes narrowing as she spoke. She then turned back to Garrett, her sneer morphing into a devilish smile. “Aw, are you worried she’ll find out what a sore loser you are?”

Garrett’s lips pulled into a straight line, his expression darkening.

“Have you made her cry yet? Or,” she gave a dramatic gasp, hand hovering over her ‘o’-shaped mouth with her fingers fanning out, “have you finally found someone who’s able to melt your icy exterior?”

Hana’s cheeks  _ burned _ , her stomach boiling with rage. She stood up and walked to stand next to Garrett in front of the woman, causing her to lower her hand from her mouth and plant it instead on her hip.

“Unless you’re actually here to shop,” Hana started, words clipped in barely suppressed anger, “then I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

The woman narrowed her eyes once more, rage suddenly storming within them. “I came here,” she reached into her purse, pulling a handheld game system from it and dropping it onto the counter with little care, “to return  _ this _ .”

Garrett’s jaw tightened at that, his gaze now on the game system.

“It was nice seeing you,” she said, voice brimming with disdain. “Have a terrible night.”

Without sparing them another glance, the woman tossed her hair over her shoulder and marched out of the store.

Garrett and Hana stood in complete silence for a while, Garrett’s eyes stuck to the handheld and Hana’s eyes on the door. After a few minutes, he finally reached out and took the system, a breath heaving from his chest. He looked at Hana with a storm brewing in his eyes.

“Thanks,” he said in a voice smaller than she’d ever heard from him.

Hana nodded wordlessly, and though she wondered who that woman was, she found that she very likely already knew that answer.

“Are you okay?” she asked after a moment.

Garrett took a deep breath and slipped the handheld into his pocket. For a moment, he seemed to consider the question, gaze on Hana, yet not quite seeing. Then, he blinked, and his gaze didn’t seem so far away.

“Yeah, I think I’m okay.” He gave a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

After Isabella came back from her break, the two of them went back to work, though Garrett was quieter than usual.

After about an hour, Hana turned to Garrett and said, “If you need to take a break, you should do that.”

He watched her in silence for a moment, and Hana suddenly remembered the time when she had asked him if he attended Lakeview College. Then, he heaved a sigh, his shoulders slumping and posture deflating with it.

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that,” he said. “Will you be okay on your own?”

Hana nodded.

“Okay. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes, then.”

When he came back fifteen minutes later, some of the tension from earlier seemed to have disappeared, though when Hana noticed that his eyes looked a little red and puffy, she could guess why.

She decided not to comment on it.

The rest of the night went well after that, and they got a lot of work done. Garrett even showed her how to close the registers for the night and prepare the money to be deposited to the bank.

When they left the store for the night, Garrett glanced around the parking lot, before turning to Hana with a puzzled look.

“Where’s your car?” he asked.

“Oh,” she said, her stomach sinking. “It broke down. I’ll need to call someone to take a look at it.”

Garrett glanced at his car thoughtfully. “The buses aren’t running right now.”

That drew a dreadful groan from Hana. “I can walk. Maybe.”

“No,” Garrett said with such finality that Hana couldn’t even think of a rebuttal. “I’ll drive you home.”

Hana blinked in surprise. “Are you sure?”

Garrett only nodded and started towards his car.

It seemed there was no fighting this; though, Hana couldn’t say she was upset. In fact, her heart seemed to be soaring as she followed him and climbed into the passenger’s seat.

When Garrett put his keys into the ignition, Hana noticed the charm she’d given him hanging from the keyring next to the keyfob.

It brought a familiar warm sensation to her chest.

The ride home was quiet, but comfortable, the only sound being Hana giving directions as they were needed. When they pulled into the parking lot, Hana pointed up to the third floor.

“My apartment is up there,” she said, and Garrett gave a hum of acknowledgement. “Thanks for the ride.”

“No problem,” he said, a smile creeping its way onto his face. “I wouldn’t want you to get hurt, or go missing or something.”

“I wouldn’t want that either,” Hana laughed breathlessly. “I really appreciate it.”

She turned to smile at Garrett. He smiled back at her, and Hana couldn’t help but notice the way he leaned slightly towards her, only to lean back and look up towards the apartment complex.

“Have a good night,” he said.

“You too,” she said as she climbed out of the car. “Text me when you get home, okay?”

He nodded and waved to her.

When Hana got to the third floor, she noticed with another burst of warmth in her chest that Garrett had waited to make sure she got inside safely.

During the next month, Hana and Garrett chatted as much as they could at work. Once her training was done, however, she was often scheduled as the only shift supervisor on duty and they didn’t often see each other at work unless it was on freight days.

One week into February, a week before midterms, Hana had started spending a lot of time in the library after class on her days off. She was going over notes she’d taken in class, reviewing content from the book, and writing as many notes onto three notecards as she possibly could, as all three of her classes were allowing open notes on the tests as long as they fit on one notecard.

On her second day in the library, someone sat down across from her at the table she was studying at. Upon looking up, she was greeted by Garrett looking down at her laptop and notebook mixed up in a mess of paperwork with mild amusement.

His gaze lifted to meet hers and he quirked a brow, lips curving into a warm smile as he asked, “May I?”

“Oh,” Hana exclaimed, rushing to move the mess to her side of the table as her voice took on a more sheepish tone, “yeah, you can sit there. Sorry, I’m reviewing as much content as I can.”

Garrett let out a small laugh at that, shaking his head as he pulled his laptop from his backpack and put it on the table. “It’s fine. I’ve got lots of studying to do myself; I thought it might be nice to study in your presence.”

Hana’s face heated up at that, her brain halting all thoughts so that she was left to watch as Garrett pulled his cable from his laptop and plugged it in.

“Or,” he started, hand pausing in its movement to put the plug into his laptop, “would you prefer to study alone?”

Hana blinked, her voice lodged in her throat, and she coughed out a laugh to free it.

“No, it’s really nice of you to join me. I’ve, uh,” she glanced to the side, hands clasping tightly together in her lap, “missed spending time with you.”

When she looked back towards Garrett, he was watching her with eyes alight and lips curved into a sweet smile.

“I’ve missed you, too,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I wanted to text you about hanging out, but…”

He trailed off, gaze slipping from her face to rest on the table.

“‘But’,” she prompted, her tone soft, yet lilting.

Garrett’s nose scrunched up, his smile turning awkward. “I didn’t want to seem, you know,” he glanced up to her, gaze searching, “ _ weird _ .”

A giggle slipped past Hana’s lips, causing the tips of Garrett’s ears to turn a bright red as he dropped his gaze to the table again.

“How would that be weird?” she asked, voice a bit higher than normal. “Though, to be fair, I haven’t texted you for the same fear, so I guess I don’t have any right saying anything. For the record, I’d love to spend more time with you.”

Garrett’s gaze snapped back up to her at that, all traces of shame and embarrassment gone in an instant. “Really?”

“Don’t sound so disbelieving,” Hana teased as she reached across the table to give his shoulder a gentle push. “You’re good company. I’m sure even Emiko would love you.”

“Emiko?” Garrett tilted his head quizzically, though happiness lit up like fireworks in his eyes.

“My cat,” Hana laughed. “Do you like cats?”

Briefly, Garrett’s mouth formed an o-shape, but then he smiled wide and quickly nodded his head. “I really like cats, even though my parents have always preferred dogs. I had a lot of friends with them; you can guess where I spent my time when I could.”

Hana laughed, bright and cheerful, drawing the attention of some of the students around them. “Sorry,” she hissed to them. Then, turning her attention back to Garrett, she said, “Well, you should totally come over. We can play video games or watch something together.”

Garrett grinned and nodded, finally plugging his laptop in and opening it up. “Yeah, but we have to study first. How about we head out at dinner time; then we can get something to eat on the way home.”

“Ooh,” Hana hummed, “I like the way you think.”

They spent the next two hours studying, chatting every now and then to walk themselves through topics that confused them.

When they left the school, they decided to go to Garrett’s house first so he could drop his car off. Then, with Hana driving, they went to get some Chinese food and went back to her apartment to eat.

Upon entering, they were instantly greeted by Emiko rushing over to see Hana, only to pause when she saw Garrett.

“Hey, girl,” Hana chirped. “This is Garrett; he’s a new friend of mine. Go on, give him a sniff.”

As Hana spoke, Garrett leaned down and held his hand out to Emiko, who approached with her tail held straight out behind her. While he was busy being investigated, Hana walked past and went to the kitchen to get the food served.

“Hey, girl,” Hana heard Garrett say, his voice so quiet that she almost missed it. “I promise I’m nice.”

She found herself grinning as she put the food on the table.

“Emiko,” she called, “do you wanna eat?”

She heard Emiko give a shrill meow, and before she even had time to turn to the counter with a can of food in hand, Emiko was already on the counter, pacing impatiently with her tail swaying behind her.

“Does she wag her tail?” Garrett asked from the doorway as Hana got worked on getting wet food served.

“Yeah,” Hana said, glancing towards him. “It was a little difficult for me to figure out that she moves her whole tail when she’s happy, and moves only the tip when she’s frustrated.”

Garrett laughed at that, his gaze moving back to Emiko as she tried to steal a bite of the food. When Hana moved the bowl out of reach, she settled instead on flattening her head against Hana’s arm, who laughed loudly at the force behind the gesture.

“Come on, girl,” she said as she moved to set the bowl down, nearly tripping over Emiko in the process.

Once the bowl was out of her hands, Emiko started eating it loudly, drawing a chuckle from Garrett as Hana put the remainder of the wet food in the fridge.

“She’s so loud,” Hana said with a shake of her head, plopping down in the chair in front of her food.

“She’s really cute,” Garrett added as he slid into the other chair.

“That she is!” Hana laughed. “She’s also spoiled rotten, though that’s entirely my fault.”

Garrett snorted at that. “At least she seems sweet.”

“She  _ is _ sweet, especially when it comes to something she wants.”

They continued chatting as they ate, with Garrett asking for funny stories about Emiko, and Hana showing pictures and videos of her cat committing both funny and cute acts. Once they were finished eating, they moved to sit on the couch and Hana turned on the TV and her game system. They settled on a cooperative game and spent the night playing and laughing.

It was around ten at night when Garrett got up to take a bathroom break.

“It’s getting late,” Hana said when he got back. “Should you go home?”

Garrett looked up at the time and grimaced. “I guess I should. Though, that means you’ll have to drive me.”

“At least my car is working,” Hana chuckled.

Garrett nodded at that.

“Hopefully it doesn’t break down again, especially while you’re driving it,” he sighed, reaching down to pet Emiko when she rubbed up against his leg.

Hana stood up and stretched, walking to the front door and pulling on her coat. Garrett followed her lead while she pulled her purse on and shoved her feet into her shoes at the same time.

The drive to Garrett’s house was filled with the sound of their chatter and laughter, mainly about the events of the game they’d been playing.

“Thanks for having me over today,” Garrett said as they pulled into his driveway.

“Yeah,” Hana said, turning to look at him as she put her car into park, “it was really fun.”

“We should,” he paused to take a breath, gaze flitting to the side, “spend more time together.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, “we should.”

“Text me when you get home,” Garrett said, though he didn’t move beyond reaching over to push a stray hair out of Hana’s face.

Her face heated up, the skin along her arms bursting with goosebumps at the contact.

“I will,” she breathed.

Garrett blinked at that, as though he were coming out of a trance, and he withdrew his hand and pushed open the door to climb out of the car.

“I’ll see you later,” he said as he shut the door.

He waved as he walked up the driveway to his front door, and Hana waved back.

She left only when she saw that he was safely inside his home.

On the Friday before midterms, Hana sent Garrett a text asking if he wanted to go for a walk by the lake. They had been hanging out in the library every day since Tuesday, studying and chatting; now that it was a day that they didn’t have class, Hana wanted to see about spending more time together outside of school and work.

“Sure,” he answered eventually. “I’m at work right now, but my shift ends in an hour. I’ll be at your place then.”

Within the hour, Hana was ready to leave. She stood by the door with her phone in hand, and though she was actively waiting for him to arrive, the knock on the door still made her jump hard enough to nearly launch her phone into the ceiling.

Pocketing her phone, Hana pulled the door open and smiled when she saw Garrett; it seemed he’d gone home to change before coming over, as he was wearing his casual clothes instead of his work uniform.

He smiled in return.

“Hey,” he said as he turned to step out of the way for her.

“Hi,” she said as she stepped out of her apartment, turning to close and lock the door behind her.

Once she was finished, they walked down the stairs to the parking lot together.

“There’s a bridge near the main hangout at the lake, you know,” he said as they got into his car.

“Is there?” she said as she buckled up.

“Yeah. It’s long, but it has a nice surprise on the other side, even during this time of year.” Garrett flashed her a smile as he started the car up and started driving.

The drive to the lake wasn’t long, and it was filled with a comfortable silence, with Hana watching the scenery pass by outside.

Once they arrived, Garrett parked his car and the two of them climbed out of it, with him locking the doors behind them. He caught Hana’s eye and gestured with a nod towards the sidewalk that led to the strip mall near the lake. When Hana started walking, Garrett fell into stride alongside her.

“We’ll get to the bridge at the next right,” he said, grabbing Hana’s arm in a gentle hold and pulling her out of the way of a cyclist; the gesture pressed her snug against Garrett’s side, and she immediately felt like she was starting to float away.

When Garrett released her, Hana stepped away from him — head bowed while her face burned and her heart lodged itself in her throat — and nervously brushed some of her hair out of her face to tuck it behind her ear.

When they turned onto the bridge, Hana saw other people hanging out and walking along it; some people stood by the railing overlooking the water, chatting and pointing towards it. Hana looked out over the water, smiling as she saw ducks and their ducklings paddling along the clear surface and quacking happily.

The wooden bridge itself had a rustic feel to it, with trees hanging over the left side of it and plaques spaced evenly along the sides showing the wildlife they would be seeing in and on the water. It felt almost like Hana was in the scene of a movie as she looked down the length of it.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed, turning to look at Garrett, who appeared to have been watching her the entire time.

“Isn’t it?” he responded, a myriad of colorful feelings bouncing around in his eyes. He then turned his gaze towards the end of the bridge. “The most beautiful scenery is on the other side of the bridge, though.”

As they walked, Hana continued looking around in wonder, though when they got to the other side of the bridge, she gave a gasp of awe. Lining the sidewalk on either side was a field of flowers that was meticulously cared for. There were sweetpeas, pansies, tall verbenas, and snapdragons.

The sidewalk was at a slight incline, and Hana rushed to the top of it so she could look out over the fields. She glanced towards Garrett as he followed her; his eyes were on her, a bright smile lighting up his face.

“The people who live here take care of these fields,” he said as he got within earshot.

Hana looked around, spotting a big house on the other side of the sidewalk.

“They have more flowers that they grow,” he continued, “and they sell custom-made bouquets to customers all year. They have a greenhouse in their top floor, where they keep flowers that are a little bit more picky about their care.”

Hana turned to him with eyes that shined with wonder. “Do you know them?”

“Yeah,” he said with a soft chuckle, “they’re my parents.”

“Really?” Hana cried.

“Yeah,” Garrett said. “They come in to shop sometimes; I’m surprised you don’t know them yet.”

As he spoke, he gestured to a man who was tending to the flower bins outside the front of the house, who Hana recognized as a customer she frequently saw in their store. He typically came in with a woman, one whom Hana could now assume was Garrett’s mother.

“Oh, wow,” she breathed, and then gave a small laugh. “I do know your parents. They just never introduced themselves.”

Garrett laughed and shook his head slightly. “That’s probably because they don’t see me in there when you’re the one helping them; if I was there, they’d mention for sure that they’re my parents.”

Then, Garrett’s dad turned to look at them and stood up. After a moment, he started speed-walking towards them with a smile.

“Garrett,” he called, “it’s so nice to see you again so soon!”

“Oh no,” Garrett groaned; Hana couldn’t fathom why — his father seemed friendly, and very happy.

When he got close enough, he pulled Garrett into a tight hug, pulling a snort of laughter from Hana.

“You don’t come around very often anymore,” he said as he gave Garrett a squeeze, to which he responded by giving an exaggerated wheeze.

“Dad,” he struggled, reaching up to pat his dad’s side, “I can’t breathe.”

“You must be Hana,” his father said as he looked at her and pulled away from the hug. “My name is Gabriel. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

He held his hand out, which Hana accepted and shook.

“He talked a lot about you at Christmas; I’m almost surprised he didn’t take you home to meet us.” Gabriel gave a loud, hearty laugh, only laughing harder at Garrett’s embarrassed sputtering.

“Dad,” Garrett hissed, “she’s my newest coworker.”

Gabriel gave him a disbelieving look. “Yes, just your newest coworker whom you’ve taken to see our fields.” He then turned his attention back to Hana. “Do you want to come inside? Alice, my wife, just made lunch.”

“We ate before we came here,” Garrett said, “but thanks.”

“Oh,” Gabriel said, but he still gave a thoughtful look. “How about you take some home, then?”

“Sure,” Hana said with a smile. “Thank you.”

At that, Gabriel immediately started towards the house, tossing a, “Why don’t you come inside?” over his shoulder as he walked.

Hana looked at Garrett, who was watching her with a mildly embarrassed look on his face.

“Sorry,” he said, “they’re kind of a wild bunch. Last I saw, one of my sisters, Charlotte, is still living at home.”

"You don't have to apologize," Hana said with a laugh. "My family is probably just as wild."

As they followed Gabriel inside, Hana was hit by a delicious smell, accompanied by a deep warmth. There were stairs immediately to the right of the front door, with what appeared to be a dining room to the left.

Hana removed her shoes at the front door, as she would at home, earning her a strange look from Gabriel.

"You don't have to take those off," he said with a raised brow.

"Oh, well," Hana started, pushing her shoes to sit snug against the wall, "I don't feel very comfortable with wearing shoes inside."

Garrett sighed and shook his head, taking his shoes off and tucking them next to Hana's. She thought she remembered him taking his shoes off at her apartment, like it was something he did without thinking.

Maybe it was a habit he developed after moving out.

As Hana followed Gabriel into the kitchen, which was through the dining room, a woman she assumed to be Alice turned towards them from the counter, instantly beaming when she saw her.

"Hi, sweetie," she said in a subtle southern drawl. "You must be Hana. My name is Alice; I'm Garrett’s mom."

"Nice to meet you," Hana said with a slight bow.

"Oh, it's nice to finally meet you too," Alice said.

"Hey honey," Gabriel called to his wife, leaning over to press a kiss to her cheek, "Hana already ate earlier today, but I was thinking we should still send her home with something to eat for dinner."

"Oh, that's a lovely idea," Alice said in a lilting voice. "Here, let me get some of our food from earlier into a container."

She turned back to the counter, pulling open a cupboard and grabbing a tupperware from within. She then moved to the counter and started scooping some of the food into it, closing the container and holding it out for Hana when she was finished.

"You should swing by here more often," she said as Hana took the container. "Our girls come by to visit more often than Garrett does, and I'm sure they'd be delighted to meet you."

"Mom," Garrett said from behind Hana, earning a giggle from his mother. "We'll stop by later to return the tupperware; I'm sure we can talk more then. Hana and I have midterms we need to study for, so we should get going."

"I'm sad to see you two leaving so soon, but thank you for dropping by to say hello," Alice said, moving past Hana to hug Garrett.

Garrett’s parents walked them to the door, where Hana gave another slight bow of her head and thanked them.

"It’s no problem, sweetie," Alice crooned. "Have a lovely day, and do come by again."

"And good luck on your midterms," Gabriel added.

With that, Garrett and Hana walked back to his car and he drove her home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrett's ex continues to cause trouble; though, it sounds like she won't be doing so for too much longer.
> 
> Garrett finds that he may have found a safe place to keep his heart.

After midterms, Garrett invited Hana to Galaxy Coffee to hang out and wind down from all of the testing. This time, Garrett arrived first and Hana second; she waved to him as she entered the cafe and went to the counter to place her order. Once she had paid, she moved to sit down across from Garrett.

"How did your midterms go?" he asked as she settled into her seat.

"I feel like they went pretty well," she said as she straightened out the sweater she wore. "What about yours?"

"Same here." Garrett took a sip of his coffee, a smile playing at the edges of his lips. "There's a new animated movie that came out recently; it looks like it'll be good."

"Oh really?" She turned to take her coffee from the barista who brought it out for her, thanking her with a slight bow of her head. When she turned back to Garrett, she asked, "Can I see the trailer?"

"Yeah." He pulled his phone from his pocket and navigated it until he found what he was looking for.

When he held his phone out for Hana, she took it and her fingers brushed against his palm. Just like before, it sent a bolt of electricity up her arm, and she briefly fumbled with the phone until it went away.

When she turned the screen to herself and played the video, she noticed with a smile that the movie seemed to be a fantasy romance. Once the trailer was done, she handed Garrett his phone back with a smile.

"Do you want to go see it with me this weekend?" he asked as he took his phone back.

"Yeah, it looks like it'll be good," Hana said, tucking her hands under her chin as she grinned at him. "Oh, there's a show I started recently! It's really good!"

"Oh?" Garrett hummed. "What's it called."

"It’s called Lone Fragment; do you watch it?" Hana tested her coffee to see if it was still scalding, drinking from it when she realized it wasn't.

"I haven't seen that one yet." Garrett mirrored her movements, eyes twinkling with interest. "I can start watching it with you today, if you have time."

"Yeah, that’ll work for me," Hana chirped. "I'm not too far into it, so we can start from the beginning. It's kind of a long series; it started a little over twenty years ago and the writer has been working on it consistently since then."

Garrett smiled at that. "So," he drawled, gaze flitting about the cafe, "that means we have to spend a lot of time together to watch all of it, right?"

Hana’s heart  _ thrilled _ at that; she almost thought she'd gotten a sudden bout of heart palpitations.

She hid her widening smile behind her cup. "I guess so."

Again, Garrett mirrored her, and she noticed the corners of his lips curling up past the top of his cup.

They decided shortly after that to go to her apartment so they could Garrett started on Lone Fragment.

They ended up curled on opposite ends of the couch, with their legs tangled together in between them and a bowl of popcorn nestled on a nest of blankets that sat atop their legs and drinks on the coffee table in front of them.

The two of them stayed like that for hours, with Emiko eventually replacing the bowl of popcorn between them.

That weekend, Hana would be working a mid-shift with Garret and Evelyn closing on Saturday and would be working a morning shift with Garrett, Isabella, and Ciara on Sunday.

When she walked into work on Saturday, Lilith pulled her aside to talk.

"We have a new cashier working today," she started. "Her name is Elizabeth. She’s been working on her computer-based training sessions up until now, but now that she’s done, she’s able to start training.

“Evelyn will be training her, but I want you to work with her while Evelyn’s on her break. She’s a bit younger than you, but I'm sure you'll all get along fine. If you have any questions about what she needs to know, you can ask Garrett."

"Okay, thanks for letting me know," Hana said with a nod.

When Lilith left them to their work, Hana went to the front to meet Elizabeth. Evelyn noticed her before the younger did, and she widened her eyes at Hana.

She recognized that look.

It meant  _ trouble _ .

Elizabeth turned to her then. Her long, straight dark hair was tied up in a ponytail and she greeted Hana with tired brown eyes that looked vaguely familiar.

"Hi," Hana said. "My name is Hana. It's nice to meet you Elizabeth."

"Yeah," Elizabeth said with a subtle roll of her eyes, "whatever."

When Elizabeth turned her back to them, Hana returned Evelyn’s earlier look.

Yeah, this was definitely going to spell trouble.

For the most part, working with Elizabeth went pretty smoothly; Evelyn was able to get her to understand how to work with the registers fairly quickly, despite Elizabeth’s initial annoyance.

When Hana had to send Evelyn to her lunch and take over for her, however, the woman with sharp brown eyes and red painted lips walked into the store and fixed Elizabeth with a nasty look.

“I can’t believe that you picked  _ this _ dump, out of all the others that are hiring,” she sneered.

“‘This dump’,” Elizabeth spat back, mocking the other woman’s tone, “is the closest to home.”

Before the woman could respond, she noticed Hana standing behind the counter as well and her expression soured even further.

“Oh,” she jeered, “it’s you. How’s my ex doing?”

Hana felt her eye twitch at that; it seemed this woman considered Garrett to be hers, even though they weren’t together anymore.

“Amanda,” Elizabeth snapped, “if you came here to cause trouble, you should just leave.”

The woman — Hana now knew to be named Amanda — scoffed at that, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

“You’re such a brat,” she spat as she turned on her heel and started walking out of the store.

“I wish you’d hurry up and leave the state already,” Elizabeth muttered.

“Shut the fuck up,” Hana hissed. “You’re just jealous that I get to be away from mom and dad.”

With that, she marched out of the store.

Elizabeth gave a frustrated noise and ripped the hair tie out of her hair, throwing it into the trash as her hair spilled down her back. She ran her fingers through her hair, roughly untangling it, and turned to look at Hana, who was watching her with mild bewilderment.

“What?” she spat, fixing Hana with a sharp glare; her eyes suddenly looked less tired and more like Amanda’s.

“Nothing,” Hana said, holding her hands up in surrender and shaking her head.

Once Evelyn got back from her lunch, she lifted a brow quizzically at Hana.

“Did everything go well?” she asked when Elizabeth walked away to go to her lunch.

“Yeah,” Hana sighed as she moved to clock out when Evelyn clocked in, “Elizabeth just had a mild disagreement with a customer.”

Evelyn looked back at Elizabeth as she walked into the back room. “Who was the customer?”

“Her sister.” Hana crossed her arms when she finished clocking out and leaned against the counter.

Evelyn grimaced at that. “I’m guessing you know who her sister is?”

“I have an idea.” Hana spotted Garrett watching her from the hair, skin, and beauty section of the store. She turned an apologetic smile to Evelyn. “Sorry, I’m going to have to leave you for the night.”

“That’s fine.” Evelyn gave a hesitant laugh. “I’m sure I can handle Elizabeth. Hopefully she doesn’t cause us too much trouble while she’s working here.”

Hana raised her eyebrows to Evelyn in agreement before leaving the registers to approach Garrett.

“Are you okay?” he asked when she got close enough.

“Yeah,” she said with a tilt of her head. “Why?”

“Things sounded like they were getting rough up here, but,” he paused, gaze turned to the door, “when I saw who was causing it, I…”

He trailed off.

“It’s okay.” Ava reached out to rub her hand on Garrett’s shoulder, fixing him with what she hoped was a look of understanding. “You shouldn’t have to deal with her if you don’t have to.”

Garrett’s face screwed up into an unrecognizable expression. “I’m a supervisor; I should know how to separate work from home.”

“She’s not ‘home’.” Ava gave a slight frown. “She might have been from your personal life, but she’s not part of your home. If I can help it, I’ll see to it that she can’t hurt you anymore.”

Besides, it sounded like she’d be leaving the state soon, anyway.

He blinked in surprise at that, his expression turning thoughtful. “You’re right; she’s  _ not _ part of my home. Thank you.”

Now, he smiled, looking more relieved that Hana had ever seen him before.

Hana smiled in return, giving his shoulder a squeeze before letting go. “Of course. Your home is,” she poked his chest, right above where his heart was beating, “here. Unless you find someone else whom you can trust to shelter it and keep it safe.”

Garrett’s ears turned red as he gave a soft laugh. He reached up and covered the back of her hand with his palm, pressing hers to rest above his heart.

“Yeah.” He gave a wistful laugh. “I think… I’ve found someone to keep it safe.”

Hana’s cheeks tingled at that, and she gave a soft giggle. “That’s good.”

She then glanced towards the counter to see Evelyn giving her a knowing look, causing her to give a soft snort of laughter. Garrett apparently noticed as well, if him releasing Hana’s hand was any indicator.

“You should get going,” he said. “Your shift is done, right? Wouldn’t want a customer to think you’re still on the clock.”

“Yeah,” Hana said as she turned to look back at Garrett. “I’ll see you tomorrow. We’re going to see the movie at three after work, right?”

He nodded, his lips curled into a big smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a good night, and remember to text me when you get home.”

When Hana left the store, her hand still felt warm.

After work on Sunday, the two of them went to their homes to change out of their work uniforms. Once Hana finished changing, she gave Emiko a treat and washed her hands, pulling her shoes and purse on and walking out when she was done.

As she walked out to her car, she saw Garrett’s parked next to it, with him smiling at her from the driver’s seat. He gestured for her to get in, and who was she to refuse?

When they arrived at the movie theatre, Garrett paid for their tickets at the counter outside.

"Do you want a drink or something to snack on?" he asked when they walked inside.

"No," Hana said with a shake of her head. "It'll just make me have to use the bathroom during the movie, and I don't want to miss any."

"All right." Garrett laughed.

As they walked to the theatre, they stayed close enough to each other that their shoulder brushed together. Garrett pointed to some seats near to the front when he saw a few open and allowed for her to sit down first.

They sat for about fifteen minutes, chattering about Lone Fragment while they waited. As more people spilled into the theatre, the quiet chatter around them grew in volume; when the movie started up, however, the theatre fell into silence.

In the movie, everyone who was featured had known each other in a past life, including the main character's dog. The characters would see visions of their past lives in dreams, though they never seemed to realize what the dreams meant.

On top of it all, the main character and the love interest had been together in their past life. Even though they didn't know, the main character's dog seemed to, as he was the reason they first met, and the reason they continued to meet after that.

It was only until they were finally together that the dog was happy.

The tragedy of their past lives, in addition to how sweet the story was, made many in the theatre cry. This included Hana, and she wasn't surprised to see that tears were brimming at the edges of Garrett’s eyes by the end of the movie as well.

"That was," Garrett paused to take a steadying breath, blinking his tears away as they left the theatre.

" _ Really _ good," Hana finished as she wiped tears from her face and eyes.

He flashed her a wobbly smile at that, giving a fervent nod of agreement.

"It’s nice to see a good romance story," he added as they got into his car.

"I know right?" she responded in a lilting tone.

As Garrett started his car up, he leaned down to squint at the time. Then, he turned a grin to Hana.

"Do you want to get something to eat?" he asked.

"Well," Hana drawled, "I was thinking that I could make one of my favorite dishes for you."

"Dishes?" Garrett blinked dumbly at her, pulling a snort from her.

"Yeah," she giggled, "food."

"Oh," he nodded. "Okay, that makes more sense. I thought you were going to sit me in front of a potter's wheel or something."

As he finished talking, Garrett gave a loud, raucous laugh and a shake of his head. Hana couldn't help her bark of laughter, and before long, they were both gasping for breath and wiping tears from their eyes.

When they had finally gathered their composure again, Garrett finally started driving; every time Hana would give a small giggle or snort, he would chew the inside of his cheek so he wouldn't fall into hysterics alongside her.

When they got back to Hana’s apartment, she walked into the kitchen and worked on getting some rice into the rice pot to cook.

“How are you with spicy foods?” she asked over her shoulder as she washed the rice.

“I like it,” Garrett said simply; one glance towards him told Hana that he was petting Emiko.

She turned back to what she was doing with a smile. Once she was finished with washing the rice, she put it into the cooker, turned it on, and pulled the fridge open to pull four pounds of defrosted ground beef from it. Then she grabbed some jalapenos, habanero peppers, and onions from the vegetable drawer. She put the ground beef into a pot to cook and went to the pantry to grab the rest of the ingredients she would need.

With everything gathered, Hana got to work on cooking the ground beef, draining it of the oil when it was done cooking. She then got to work on preparing everything else, which she added to the ground beef when it was ready. Once everything was mixed and cooked, Hana turned to Garrett with a smile.

“It’s my mom’s hot hamburger recipe,” she chirped.

“‘Hot hamburger’?” he echoed, standing up and going to peek into the pot.

“We call it hot hamburger, but it’s not actually a burger; it’s something you eat with rice.” Hana laughed and moved to grab some bowls for them.

“Well,” Garrett turned to her with a smile, “it smells delicious.”

“Thanks,” Hana giggled as she handed a bowl to him.

They got what they wanted to eat and sat at the table together. They chatted about Lone Fragment, the movie they just watched, and some new video games they’d be interested in playing while they ate.

After a while, they went quiet, with Garrett getting a thoughtful look on his face.

“Have you heard of Ichor Emergence?” he asked after a beat of silence.

“No,” Hana said with a shake of her head. “What’s it about?”

“Well, it’s an eldritch horror—” Garrett started.

“You had me at ‘eldritch horror’,” Hana said before he could continue. “What platform is it on?”

“Yours,” Garrett said with a laugh. “It’s an online multiplayer game, but we can set a password so that we can only play with each other.”

Hana’s mouth pulled into a wide smile at that. This sounded like a good way for them to spend time with each other, even when they couldn’t physically be with each other.

“I think I’ll get it tonight,” she said. “Then we can play together when you need to go home.”

“There is a bit of a tutorial phase where we won’t be able to play together, but once you get past that, we can join each other’s games to help each other with the areas and bosses,” he said at length.

“Have you played it before?” Hana leaned towards him the slightest bit, her hair falling over her shoulder to rest on the table.

“I have.” Garrett mirrored her actions, if only to push her hair away from her face. “I’m stuck at a certain boss, but I had a feeling it would be something you’d enjoy.”

Hana snorted at that, leaning back and popping the last of her food into her mouth.

“Well,” she started when she finished with her food, “for the record, I’m not getting this game just because you need help with it.”

Garrett laughed at that, loud and unabashed and shook his head. “I know; it’s just an added perk, right?”

“Sure,” Hana laughed, “you could say that.”

Garrett gave another chuckle and shook his head, mirth glimmering within his eyes.

“Oh,” Hana exclaimed, standing up and moving to the dishwasher. “I still have to return your parents’ tupperware.”

She opened the dishwasher and pulled it out, moving to the stove and putting some of the hot hamburger into it.

“Oh, I’m sure they’d love the food,” Garrett said, a smile evident in his voice.

“When should I bring it over?” Hana turned to him as she propped the lid on the container without fully closing it, to let the food properly cool off while inside the tupperware.

“I’m sure whenever will work for them.” Garrett stood from his seat and gathered their dishes, taking them to the sink and starting to wash them. “Sooner than later is probably good, though, just so the food doesn’t go bad.”

“I know  _ that _ ,” Hana said as she playfully swatted his shoulder. “Also, you’re not allowed to wash dishes; you’re my  _ guest _ .”

“But you cooked,” he responded, tossing a glance to her over his shoulder; though Hana couldn’t see his mouth over his shoulder, she could see his smile in his eyes. “Besides, with how often I’m over, your apartment is almost like a second home for me.”

Hana’s heart fluttered at that.

“Fine,” she said, now reaching up to rub his shoulder where she’d swatted it earlier. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said, and for a moment, Hana thought he had leaned into her touch.

Garrett glanced over his shoulder at Hana once he got to work on washing the dishes, tilting his head quizzically when he saw her. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” Hana tilted her head in return.

“With that big smile?”

“I’m smiling?” Hana laughed. “Sorry, is that weird?”

Garrett huffed out a soft laugh at that and shook his head as he returned his attention to the dishes. “No, it’s not.”

When he finished washing the dishes, they went to sit on the couch so that they could watch more Lone Fragment. Again, they sat there like that for hours, with one of their only breaks occurring when Hana gave Emiko her dinner, and then they were back on the couch together, laughing and giving occasional commentary about the show.

Garrett ended up leaving at midnight.

Once he was gone, Hana stayed true to her word and looked Ichor Emergence up on her game system.

It was on sale right now; lucky her.

She bought the game and started it up. Upon entering the game, Hana was pleasantly surprised to see that she could customize her character after a brief introduction movie. As she was doing that, Garrett texted her to let her know that he’d gotten home safe.

“That’s good,” she sent. “I’m starting up the game now; I’ll let you know when we can play together.”

“Tonight? I thought you had early classes tomorrow.” Came his response. “Shouldn’t you sleep early so that you’re not too tired tomorrow?”

“Oh yeah.” Hana couldn’t help the small giggle that slipped from her when she sent her message. “I guess I’ll get to a point where we can play together and then go to bed so that we can play together another day.”

“Okay, but don’t stay up too late. And remember to put the food away so that it doesn’t go bad, and then you can have something to eat for breakfast tomorrow.”

A burst of warmth spread from her chest at that and she sent, “Thanks for reminding me. I might bring some for you, too.”

“That would be really nice,” he sent back, earning another giggle from her.

Turning her attention back to her game, Hana finished creating her character and started playing the actual game when she was finished.

While she played, she discovered that the game had a function called Perception, which was used to call people into her game. The function used to level up was called Resounding Ichor.

When she had some Perception, and the tools she could use to call people into her game or join another’s game, Hana quit out of the game and turned the system off. She cleaned up for the night, let Garrett know she was heading to bed, and got ready to do so.

When she lay down to sleep, she saw that she had a text from him.

“Goodnight,” it read.

She smiled at her phone and returned the message.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	6. In Sickness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hana returns the tupperware she borrowed from Garrett's parents; though, the weekend after that, she ends up needing to call off from work.

On Monday, after school, Hana went to Garrett's parents' home so she could return their tupperware with the hot hamburger in it. Alice answered the door, a big grin forming on her face when she saw her.

"Hi, sweetie," she practically sang, immediately stepping aside so Hana could come in. "It’s so lovely to see you again, dear."

"Hello again," Hana said as she walked in, pulling her shoes off and placing them snug against the wall. "I came to return your tupperware."

Alice's eyes twinkled when Hana held the tupperware out to her, and she took it gently from her hands and started towards the kitchen with an expectant glance tossed towards Hana. She immediately knew that this would be more than a simple drop-off mission; it made her heart stutter a nervous beat.

"Thank you." She placed it on the counter and turned to Hana. "Is there any special way we should eat this?"

"Ah," Hana paused in the doorway, her hands clasped in front of her, "you mix it with rice. It's a bit spicy; is that okay?"

"Oh, our family  _ loves _ spicy food, sweetie. You don't have to worry about us. Did you just come from school? Are you hungry?"

Hana gave a small chuckle, reaching up with her left hand to clasp the elbow of her right arm. "Yeah, I did. I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast, but I can go home and—"

"You can eat here with us, dear!" Alice trilled. "Please, I insist. I was just getting ready to cook something for the three of us; it won't be difficult to cook for you as well."

"Oh." Hana blinked in surprise. "If that’s okay, I'd really appreciate it."

"Lovely." Alice clasped her hands together, her eyes practically glowing with joy. "You can have a seat while I cook. If you'd like and need to, you can go out to your car and bring your school stuff in so you can work on your homework."

Hana gave a small sigh of relief of that, and smiled. "Thank you. I'll be right back."

Alice gave her a smile as she went back to the front door and pulled her shoes back on. When she went outside, Gabriel was approaching the house from the flower fields; he gave her a wide smile and a wave as he passed, which she returned to the best of her ability with her thrumming nerves.

She sat in the back of her car next to her backpack and pulled her phone from her pocket, opening up Evelyn’s contact and shooting her a text that said, "I think I've made a critical mistake."

"What happened?" Evelyn replied with a surprised emoji at the end of her text.

"I somehow met Garrett’s parents and they gave me food. I think it's important to return a container with food, so I came back to return it and now they're giving me lunch!"

"There's so much to unpack here. Lol one sec."

Within seconds, Hana’s phone was ringing, and she immediately answered it and put it to her ear.

"So," Evelyn started with a laugh, "start from the beginning."

"Garrett and I went on a walk at the lake, and he took me across the bridge near it, right?" Hana said in a rush.

Evelyn gave a hum of acknowledgement.

"On the other side of the bridge is this  _ beautiful _ flower field. Garrett seemed to know the people who care for it, so I asked him if he does, and he said that they're his  _ parents _ . Next thing I know, I'm meeting his dad and he's taking me inside and then I'm meeting his mom and she gives me food to take home."

"Take a second;  _ breathe _ ," Evelyn said in a soothing tone. "So, you're returning the tupperware with food in it, and now they're having you over for lunch? Are you  _ sure _ there’s nothing going on between you two,  _ especially _ after your display on Saturday?"

"There," Hana paused to think about the times Garrett had pushed her hair away from her face, the way he'd held her hand to his chest on Saturday, " _ might _ be nothing between us?"

"Oh,  _ real _ convincing," Evelyn drawled, and Hana could practically see her rolling her eyes on the other end. "Just ask him out already, dude."

"But what if—"

"No 'what if's!" Evelyn cut her off. "He definitely likes you back; you've got to be dense not to notice."

"Well, I guess I'm dense, because I'm not so sure." Hana leaned back in her car, draping her free hand over her backpack. "I mean, he just had a nasty break-up a few  _ months _ ago; that's pretty recent, if you ask me. Anyways, I've got to go, before Alice and Gabriel think I've bailed on them."

"All right," Evelyn drawled. "Have fun, and definitely  _ consider _ asking Garrett out."

Hana rolled her eyes at that as she pulled her backpack onto her shoulder and climbed out of her car. "I'll talk to you later to let you know how it goes, okay?"

"Okay, bye!"

She pulled her phone away from her ear and hung up, pocketing it as she walked to the front door again. When she got inside, she could hear Alice and Gabriel talking.

"She seems really sweet," Alice said as Hana pushed the door shut behind her.

"Yeah, and Garrett seems like he really enjoys her company," Gabriel said while Hana took her shoes off and placed them by the wall again.

"He's seemed a lot happier since meeting her, too. Maybe she'll help him heal." Alice gave a delighted little laugh as she spoke, her words overflowing with a soft and sweet happiness.

Hana stood at the door for a few moments, waiting to see if the conversation was well and truly done; walking in during it felt like it would be invasive. When she heard no one else speaking, she hesitantly entered the kitchen again and smiled sheepishly at the grins turned her way.

“Welcome back, sweetie,” Alice greeted.

“There’s an outlet over here, if you need to plug your laptop in,” Gabriel said as he gestured to the seat closest to the counter.

“Thank you,” Hana said with a slight bow of her head as she moved to sit down.

She shrugged her backpack off and tucked it against her seat, pulling her laptop and cable from it and placing the former on the table. Once she had everything plugged in and started up, she glanced between Alice and Gabriel.

“May I use your wifi?” she asked tentatively.

“Oh, of course,” Gabriel said with a nod.

Hana turned her laptop to him and he got her signed into their wifi. She thanked him when he returned it to her.

While she worked, it was relatively quiet, save for the sound of Alice cooking.

“What are you studying?” she suddenly asked as she worked to get the food onto plates and to the table.

Hana looked up at her with a start, scooting her laptop to the side so that Alice could put the food in front of her.

“Oh, thank you,” she murmured. “I’m studying anesthesiology.”

Alice and Gabriel exchanged impressed looks at that.

“Did you know that Garrett is studying computer science?” Gabriel asked.

“Oh yeah, he told me that.” Hana smiled.

“He told us that you were promoted to shift supervisor around Christmas time,” Alice said.

Hana nodded to that. “It was on Christmas Eve that I got the offer, actually.”

“Talk about an awesome Christmas present,” Gabriel said with a nod.

“Yeah, it definitely was,” Hana said, a small laugh slipping past her lips.

“Oh, you know,” Alice looked at Gabriel with a smile, “Garrett really likes analogue watches. He likes the sound they make.”

“Oh, really?” Hana smiled at that. “I noticed her wears one at work; though, I do have to agree that the sound they make is really soothing.”

The conversation continued from then, with Garrett’s parents asking Hana questions about herself and her family, and telling her about Garrett. They even told her about his ex, both wearing sour looks as they talked about her.

By the time Hana was leaving, she knew funny stories from when Garrett was a kid, what he liked and didn’t like, and what happened during his relationship with Amanda.

When she got home, she flopped down on the couch and sent Garrett a text that said, “I went to return the tupperware to your parents. A quick drop-off mission turned into a whole lunch date.”

“I’m guessing they told you a whole plethora of embarrassing stories,” he replied.

“Yeah. Luckily for you, there were no baby pictures involved.” Hana laughed as she sent the message.

She then navigated to Evelyn’s contact and sent her a text that read, “It went pretty well. I was nervous at first, but they seemed to like me.”

“Did you show you embarrassing pictures?” Evelyn asked.

“No, but I do have quite a few funny and embarrassing stories up my sleeve now.” Hana sent. “They did ask me a lot of questions about myself and my family, though.”

“Ooh,” Evelyn sent. “You know what that means.”

Hana rolled her eyes and shook her head at that. “Maybe so. But just because his parents might be hoping for something to happen, doesn’t mean he is.”

“You’re so dense,” Evelyn sent, earning a snort of laughter from Hana.

“Are you able to play some Ichor Emergence tonight?” Garrett sent.

“Hell yeah,” Hana replied after she opened their chat up. “Just let me know when you’re ready.”

“All right. I’ll text you when I get home.”

Hana spent some time working ahead on her homework while waiting for Garrett to send her a text. When she got the message, they spent two hours playing Ichor Emergence while in a voice chat together, only calling it a night when they had to go to sleep for class the next day.

When Friday rolled around, Hana woke up with a chill, her whole body wracked by shivers, even while she drew her covers tight around her body. Her skin and muscles felt hypersensitive, every brush of fabric and subtle movement almost too painful to bear. She leaned over to squint at the time. It was nearly noon, and she had to be at work by 2:30.

When she pulled herself from her bed, a pain crashed into her skull and her vision went black from the intensity.

As her vision came back, Hana found herself on her knees, one hand steadying her body against her bed, and the other pressed firmly to her head.

"Shit," she muttered as Emiko ran into her room to check on her.

She held her hand out to her cat, surveying Emiko’s startled and concerned expression as she moved closer to sniff Hana’s hand.

Meanwhile, she reached for her phone with her other hand and pulled it off of her nightstand, the sound of it dragging along the wood grating her ears.

She called her store, phone almost slipping from her fingers with how bad her trembling was outside of her covers, and waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello and thank you for calling Health Precision," came Garrett’s voice after three rings. "My name is Garrett; how may I help you?"

"Hey, Garrett," she said in a hoarse voice, swallowing thickly in an attempt to moisten her throat. "I can't come into work today. Can you let Lilith know for me?"

There was a beat of silence where Hana imagined Garrett stunned, blinking as he processed the information, and then he said, "Yeah, I'll let her know."

"Thanks," Hana said as she slumped back against her bed. "I'll see you," she glanced at the date on her phone, sighing heavily when she saw it was Saturday, "on Monday."

Garrett hummed at that, and when he didn't say anything, Hana thumped her head back on the bed and hung up, letting her phone slide from her fingers and onto the floor.

"This sucks," she said in response to Emiko’s soft huff.

The next thing Hana knew, she was opening her eyes to the sound of someone knocking on her door. A glance at the clock told her it was 2:40.

She carefully pulled herself to her feet, a groan tugging past her lips as she realized her discomfort had worsened because she'd somehow fallen asleep propped up against her bed. The pain in her head had her doubling over again, eyes squeezed shut until the throbbing passed.

When Hana felt well enough to walk, she wrapped herself in a robe and moved to her front door, pulling it open just a crack so she could peek outside.

She blinked in surprise when she saw Garrett’s concerned eyes staring back.

"Hey," he said tentatively. "Are you okay?"

"Uh," Hana said, moving to the side and pulling the door further open to let Garrett in.

He hesitantly entered her apartment and took his shoes off, eyes never leaving her as he did so.

"It’s just a fever," she said.

Garrett’s gaze flitted down to her hand clutching at her robe, seeming to take in the shivers wracking her body before moving back up to her face. He tentatively reached out to press the back of his finger against her forehead, wincing as he withdrew his hand.

“Yeah, it’s a fever, all right,” he said as took the door from her grasp and pushed it shut, locking it. "Have you had something to eat?"

Hana’s stomach turned at that. "No. I, uh," she paused to look at Emiko as she trotted towards them to greet Garrett. "I feel sick."

Garrett’s expression grew contemplative as he leaned down to pet Emiko. "Well, you should still have something to eat. How about the classic chicken noodle soup? You need water, too. Have you taken any ibuprofen?"

He stood up and walked into the kitchen, giving a hum before moving to the pantry and pulling Emiko’s dry food from it. He refilled her food bowl and grabbed her water bowl to fill that as well.

Then, he turned his gaze to her once more.

"How about you lay down. Just," he paused to glance towards the counter, "anywhere you feel comfortable."

Hana walked to the couch and sat down carefully, so as to not agitate her head. She could hear Garrett moving around in her kitchen; she supposed he was making soup for her.

Pulling her feet onto the couch and leaning against the armrest, Hana gave a soft huff and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, Garrett was sitting on the couch about a foot away from her. The TV was on, set to a romance, with the volume set fairly low. A bowl of soup, a cup of water, a can of ginger ale, and three tablets of ibuprofen sat on the coffee table in front of her.

"What's the ginger ale for?" she asked.

Garrett’s gaze snapped to her, eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Oh," he gave a nervous laugh, "it's supposed to help with nausea."

"Oh," Hana echoed.

She grabbed the ginger ale and wiped the top of the can off on her shirt. Her skin prickled when she tried to open it; it felt like she was rubbing her fingertip against a knife.

Garrett’s gaze was on her as she moved, and he reached for the can when he realized she was having a hard time with it. Hana placed it in his hand, watching as he opened it and held it out for her again.

She took it with a soft thanks and started drinking it. She only felt comfortable enough to tackle the soup when the can was halfway gone, and it was only after she'd finished the soup that she took the ibuprofen with the water.

"Thanks," she said with a small smile.

"It’s no problem," Garrett said, his expression beginning to mirror hers. "I was worried when you called, and then you didn't answer any of my texts. I thought something bad had happened."

"Sorry," Hana said with a soft sigh, "I fell asleep on my floor after that call."

"'On the floor'?" Garrett echoed, looking concerned.

"Yeah," she drawled, rubbing the back of her neck. "I guess I needed it."

"You probably still do." Garrett looked down as Emiko circled his feet. "You should go to bed; call me if you need anything, okay? I'll be right in here."

Hana nodded. "Okay. Thanks."

She started to stand up, once again getting hit by blinding pain.

_ Right _ , came her hazy thought.  _ Ibuprofen won't take care of migraines _ .

When it faded and her vision returned, she was slumped over Garrett’s arm, his other hand wrapped around her back and holding her shoulder to keep her upright.

“Woah, there,” he said in a soothing tone once she lifted her head, “are you still with me?”

Hana groaned and moved to stand on her own. “Yeah, I’m here. I’m okay.”

She patted Garrett’s arm, and he slowly withdrew, hovering near her in the event that she went down again.

As Hana walked to her room, she could feel Garrett’s eyes still watching her, making sure she was still okay on her journey to her room. She offered what she hoped was a reassuring smile when she turned in her doorway, which he responded to with a subtle nod, and she pushed the door partially closed.

When she woke up again later, she could hear movement from outside of her room. It sounded like Garrett was standing up from the couch.

“Hey, girl,” she heard him say. “Do you want to eat? Hana usually gives you food around this time, right?”

The sound of Emiko trilling loudly, followed by an excited meow and several excited chirps as she rushed to the kitchen, reached Hana’s ears and pulled a sleepy smile from her face.

“Let’s see,” Garrett started as Hana heard him open the fridge. “I checked earlier, but I couldn’t find an open can. I guess you’re up to a new one, then?”

Garrett shut the fridge and opened the pantry.

“How about this one?” he asked after the sound of him rummaging through the wet food. Then, he laughed. “Yeah, you seem to like this one.”

Hana listened as Garrett continued to chatter on to Emiko while he got her food prepared, and she eventually fell asleep to the sound.

When she woke up later that night, she found a cup of water on her nightstand with three tablets of ibuprofen set next to it, on a note that read, “Take this with something to eat.”

She smiled and took the cup and tablets to the kitchen, where she prepared some soup for herself. She quickly at the soup and took the medicine, downing the water in the process.

After washing her dishes, Hana gave a soft sigh and considered a shower. The steam from a hot shower typically helped her to feel better, as did the hot water, which would help to relax her sore muscles.

As Hana walked to her room to get some clothes, she spotted a lump on her couch with a start. Upon closer inspection, she realized that Garrett had fallen asleep on her couch.

That’s right; he didn’t have a key to lock the door with, so if he left, her door would be left unlocked while she slept.

Her lips curled into a soft smile as she continued towards her journey of a shower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	7. Terror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda makes yet another appearance, but Hana does not relent. However, after she gets off from work, something terrible happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, this chapter features stalking, and likely what would have ended up turning out to be kidnapping if it had been allowed to happen. This is another event that's based on my real life experience -- it happened twice.

On Monday, Hana was working a closing shift with Elizabeth after her classes. It was Elizabeth’s first time working without someone to shadow.

When Hana went to the front to check on Elizabeth’s progress with facing the alcohol behind the counter, she saw the younger leaning against the counter with her phone in her hand.

“Hey, Elizabeth,” Hana said, earning a noncommittal grunt from her. “How’s your facing going?”

At this, Elizabeth rolled her eyes and fixed Hana with a sour look.

“It’s going fine,” she sneered. “God, you guys are always getting on my case.”

“Well, that’s because we need our whole team to pitch in and help out for the store to be in tip-top shape.” Hana walked closer to the counter, placing her elbows on top of it and pressing her weight into them. “Do you need more training on facing to understand how it works?”

Elizabeth set her phone down on the counter with more force than necessary; if she did that frequently, Hana wondered how her phone screen wasn’t broken.

“What I  _ need _ is for you to get off my back,” Elizabeth snarled. “I didn’t even want this job in the first place; my parents forced me to get it. You guys are just making things worse by always butting your heads in my business.”

Hana narrowed her eyes at her, pushing off of the counter and crossing her arms. “You might want to talk to Lilith about that, if it’s such a big deal. If you’re not willing to work, then why don’t you clock out and go home? It’s about time for your lunch, anyway.”

Elizabeth snatched her phone from the counter and shoved it into her pocket, rolling her eyes as she stormed over to the register to lock it and clock out.

“Good luck with work tonight,” she spat as she marched into the back room so she could grab her things from the locker room.

As Hana moved to stand behind the counter, thankful that she had nothing else on her to-do list for the day, she heard a bark of laughter from the line. She turned around to stare owlishly at the sound of the source.

Amanda stared back at her with a cruel glint in her eyes, earning a deadpan from Hana when she saw that Elizabeth’s sister was here, yet again, without anything in hand to buy.

“That’s really funny,” she said in a mocking tone, one hip cocked to the side with a hand rested upon it. “I hope you don’t have anything else to do for the night.”

Hana released a quiet sigh and ran a hand down her face. “Are you here to shop, or are you here to cause trouble?”

Amanda threw her head back and laughed, mad and loud, a sound that made the hairs on the back of Hana’s neck stand on end.

“I just wanted to see how Garrett’s new girlfriend is doing.” She walked closer to the counter, leaning so far over it that her face was inches from Hana’s body. At her narrowed eyes, Amanda added, “Oh,  _ come on _ . Don’t think I haven’t seen you two giving each other doe eyes. Frankly, it’s a little sickening.”

When Hana took a step back, Amanda gave another bark of laughter. She looked Hana over and shook her head with an amused huff.

“It would seem that he has a type,” she said; it made Hana’s lip curl in distaste. “Though the same can’t be said for our personalities; you’re too timid.”

Hana heaved a sigh and crossed her arms. “Please leave the store.”

Amanda laughed. “You’re so cold, though. I guess like attracts like.”

She laughed once more and walked out of the store, tossing a look towards Hana as she walked through the doors.

“Is she gone?” Elizabeth called from the second floor, where she was peeking up over the half-wall from the stairs.

Hana found herself silently thanking whatever deity was out there that the store was empty.

“She just left,” she said. “You’ll probably run into her in the parking lot if you leave now.”

“I’ll wait for a bit in the breakroom, then.” Elizabeth walked back up the stairs and into the breakroom, where she turned the light on and sat down at the table by the window.

After half an hour, she finally came downstairs and left, without so much as a glance towards Hana. The rest of the night was fairly quiet, and because she was the only one in the store at this time, she had to wait until it was time to lock the doors to count the money in the registers.

When she finished closing everything up and left the store, she made quick work of the lock and turned to go to her car. On her way there, she thought she saw a dark car parked at the side of the parking lot.

It sent a cold chill of fear through her.

She quickly got into her car and locked the doors, placing her phone in the cupholder next to her for easy access, just in case something came up and she needed to call for help. She started her car up and pulled out of the parking lot.

As she drove, she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary for a little bit.

That is, until she saw light reflect off of a car that was following very closely behind her in her rearview mirror.

The car’s headlights weren’t on, and she was the only one on the roads at this time of night.

She grabbed her phone from the cupholder, pulling up and calling the first contact she could think of.

“Hello?” Garrett said after two rings. “Is everything okay?”

“I,” Hana glanced in her rearview mirror, heart hammering in her chest, “think someone is trying to follow me home.”

“What?” came Garrett’s immediate response, alarm evident in his tone. “Why didn’t you call the police?”

“I can’t see any plates.” Hana’s skin was crawling, her breath coming out in short rasps. “The headlights aren’t on and it’s a dark car, so I can’t tell what the make and model is.”

“Well,” Garrett paused, perhaps to think, “don’t go to your apartment.”

“Where should I go?” Hana tried to keep her voice even as she asked that, but it still came out louder than she had intended.

“Come to my house.” Garrett’s voice was steady and sure as he spoke. “You’ll have to turn around to do that, right? It’ll make your pursuer realize that you know he’s there, and he’ll probably leave. Still, to be safe, don’t go home yet.”

“What about Emiko?” she practically cried.

“Does anyone you know have a key to your apartment?” he asked soothingly.

“My,” Hana paused to take a deep breath and she pulled into a parking lot to turn around, the car behind her mimicking hers. “My sisters do.”

“Can you call one of them and ask them to watch Emiko for the night?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I can do that.”

“Okay.” Garrett took a deep breath. “I’ll stay on the phone with you to make sure nothing happens, okay?”

“Okay.” Hana’s breath shuddered in her lungs. “Thank you.”

“It’s okay. I just want to make sure you’re safe.”

Hana stayed quiet after that, fighting tears and trying to steady her breath so she could arrive at Garrett’s house safely. At some point, her pursuer did end up leaving. She thought it was when they passed the store again, but with her nerves buzzing and the fog of fear that had settled in her mind, she wasn’t too sure.

When she pulled into his driveway and parked, she said, “I’m here.”

“Okay,” Garrett breathed. “I’m coming out. Don’t unlock your doors or get out of your car just yet, okay?”

Hana nodded, watching his door as it opened and he walked outside at a brisk pace. He glanced up and down the street before approaching her car and giving her a nod.

She hung up on the call, grabbed her purse, unlocked the door, and climbed out of the car. Garrett put his arm around her shoulders, hovering, but not quite touching, as she locked her car. Once more, he glanced up and down the street before leading Hana inside.

She practically sobbed with relief when the door was shut and locked behind them, prompting Garrett to put his hands on her shoulders and give them a light squeeze.

“Are you okay?” he asked gently, to which she responded with a silent nod. “I’ll get you something warm; you just sit on the couch and make sure someone can take care of Emiko for tonight.”

Hana nodded, and Garrett released her shoulders and pulled off his shoes to walk further into the house. She took her shoes off at the edge of the walkway and walked into the house, looking around as she did so.

Come to think of it, she had never been  _ in _ his house before.

As she walked, she passed the kitchen, where Garrett was currently working on getting her a warm drink. He glanced up at her as she passed and offered a reassuring smile.

“There are blankets on the couch that you can use,” he said, glancing to the side towards a space in the wall where the living room was.

Hana nodded and walked over to the couch, tentatively grabbing one of the blankets and pulling it around her shoulders before she sat down and pulled her legs up to her chest. She put her purse on the coffee table and held her phone up to her face. Taking a deep, steadying breath, Hana pulled up her youngest sister’s contact, whom she knew would be awake at this time, and called her.

She answered after five rings.

“What’s up?” she said.

“Hey, Yumi,” Hana said. “I can’t go home tonight. Can you swing by and make sure Emiko gets her wet food, and that her water and dry food bowls are full?”

“Yeah, sure,” Yumi said, her voice strained as she moved, Hana suspected getting up from the couch. “What happened?”

“Someone tried to follow me home. I freaked out and called Garrett.”

Yumi snorted at that. “You mean your coworker-turned-friend who you talked a lot about during Thanksgiving and Christmas?”

“Yeah.” Hana let out a small laugh. “I’m at his place right now; it shook off whoever was following me, so all is well.”

“Well, that’s good. I’ll head over to your place now.” Yumi let out an eager laugh. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen Emiko.”

“Yeah. She’ll probably be happy to see you. Thanks for this, by the way.”

“It’s no prob,” Yumi said, and Hana could imagine her waving her hand dismissively, “as long as you’re good and safe.”

Hana laughed at that. “Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Yeah, talk to you in a bit.”

With that, Yumi hung up and Hana tucked her phone into her lap.

As she sat there and her nerves finally stopped buzzing like an angry hive, she started taking in little details of Garrett’s house. He had plants on shelves, hanging from the ceiling, and in corners of his room, closest to the side the large windows were one. They were all well taken care of, their leaves a bold green and all standing proudly. There were even orchids, bamboo plants, and succulents — if she knew correctly, were difficult to care for — and they all looked perfectly happy and healthy.

When she looked up, she saw Garrett walking over with a mug. He held it out to her as he sat at the edge of the couch beside her, and when she took it, he reached out and gingerly wiped away some tears that had fallen from her eyes.

“It’s hot chocolate,” he said sheepishly as he withdrew his hand. “I don’t have any tea, and I figured coffee might just make things worse because of the caffeine.”

Hana huffed out a laugh at that. “Thanks.”

He nodded and settled back into the couch next to her.

“Do you want to watch some Lone Fragment?” he asked, and Hana’s lips pulled into a small smile at that.

“Sure.”

They spent until midnight watching, which was when they decided it would be a good idea to get some sleep.

“I’ll get you a spare toothbrush,” Garrett said as he stood up. “If you need some spare pajamas, I’ve got some that are a bit too small for me to wear.”

Hana chuckled at that. “Thanks.”

As he showed her to the guest room, she looked around the rest of what she could see. The house had a kitchen, a dining room, a family room, a living room, and three bedrooms, one of which was being used as an office. There was one bathroom near the guest bedroom, a small walkin bathroom in the guest room, and when she peered into his room — a master bedroom — where she saw a master bathroom.

When she walked into the guest room, she settled down in the bed once she’d finished getting ready in the guest room bathroom.

Falling asleep was surprisingly easy, even in the unfamiliar environment.

When Hana was leaving to go home so she could get ready for class the next morning, she couldn’t help wrapping her arms around Garrett, squeezing him tight, and pressing her cheek to his chest with a whispered thanks. As she put her shoes on and walked out of his house, she realized that he wasn’t closing the door behind her.

“What are you doing?” she asked as she turned around to grab the door.

Garrett stood in place, his arms lifted and expression stunned as a blush creeped onto his cheeks, nose, ears, and neck.

“Oh, sorry.” Hana gave a nervous laugh, wondering if she’d overstepped an unspoken boundary. “I didn’t really mean to hug you, I guess I was just overwhelmed with happiness from what you did for me last night.”

Garrett blinked, finally lowering his arms and looking down at her. He offered a wobbly smile as he stepped forward to grab the door.

“It’s okay,” he said tremulously. “I was just caught off-guard, I guess. I’ll see you at work later.”

Hana laughed and waved to him. “I’ll see you later.”

She trotted to her car and went home, her heart at ease.

When she walked into her apartment, she could hear Yumi speaking enthusiastically to Emiko.

“You’re so cute,” she cooed, a smile evident in her voice. “Did you know that?”

Hana found her in the living room, leaning on the coffee table with Emiko laying in front of her.

“Hey,” she said. “Thanks again for keeping an eye on her.”

Yumi’s gaze flitted up to Hana as she gave a snort and shook her head.

“I  _ love _ seeing Emiko,” she said with a chuckle. “You don’t have to ask me twice to come over here and spend time with her.”

Hana laughed at that. “Well, you’ve got class soon, right? Shouldn’t you go home and get ready for that?”

“Yeah.” Yumi sighed and stood up, stretching her arms high above her head.

She walked to Hana and gave her a quick hug.

“I’m glad you made it out of that okay. It must have been scary.”

Hana gave her a quick, reassuring squeeze. “It was.”

Yumi pulled away and gave her arm a light punch. “I’ll talk to you later.”

She walked to the front door and got ready to leave, turning to give Hana a wave before she walked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	8. Group Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrett is finally integrated into Hana's regular group of friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a teensy bit of blood in this chapter, but it isn't anything too graphic. Just a fair warning, in case that kind of stuff squicks you out.

Once the quarter ended in March, Hana had more time to do what she enjoyed. She found herself drawing and writing more often when her shifts at work were done. Her weekends were spent doing things with Evelyn, Ezra, and Owen, and oftentimes, playing games or watching shows with Garrett.

About halfway through the first week of the break, while Hana was seated in front of the coffee table with her laptop on top of it and a drawing that she was finishing up open, Ezra sent her a text that said, "Hey, you should totally bring Garrett to hang out with the rest of us at Galaxy Coffee!"

Hana stared at the message for a moment before typing, "Oh yeah, that's a good idea. I always end up either hanging out with all of you, or just him. Are you there now?"

"Not yet. Just invite him out and let us know!"

Hana gave a soft laugh at that and pushed herself up from the floor, stooping down to save her document and close her laptop. She then walked to her room to get ready to leave and then pulled her purse on.

Once she was standing in the walkway, she pulled her phone from her pocket and sent Garrett a text that said, "Hey, do you want to meet up for coffee today?"

After a few minutes, he gave an affirmative response and Hana trotted out of her apartment and to her car.

When she arrived at Galaxy Coffee, she checked the fridge and grabbed a fruit parfait, which she paid for at the counter when she ordered her coffee. Once she placed her order and settled into a seat at a table that would fit all of them, she put her parfait down on the table with the spoon next to it and pulled her phone from her pocket to find something to do while she waited.

A few minutes later, Garrett walked into the cafe, and she sent a text to Ezra to let him know.

Once he placed his order, he walked to her table with her drink in his hand.

"Here you go," he said as he placed it on the table in front of her.

"Thanks," she said with a grin.

As Garrett sat down, Hana opened her parfait and dumped the oats that came with it into it.

"What have you been up to?" she asked as she stirred them in.

"I've been working on some personal projects," he said with a hum. "I tried my hand at making a script-based game. There aren't any visuals, of course, because I'm no artist."

"Oh? Are you wanting to make a game?"

Garrett gave a thoughtful hum. "Maybe. As of right now, I think I'd only be able to program a story-based game, like a dating sim."

"That’s still cool, though. You could make lots of money from a good dating sim, you know."

He chuckled at that, drawing one from her as well. One of the workers walked over with his coffee, which he took with a thanks.

Then, Ezra and Owen walked in, with Evelyn right on their heels. Hana waved to them, which they returned before walking to the counter. Once they all finished ordering and paying, they walked to the table that Hana and Garrett were sitting at and pulled into their own seats.

Ezra looked at Garrett for a moment before turning to give Hana a look.

Oh right, she had never let him know that Garrett was indeed cute.

"Oh, hey Evelyn," Garrett said. Then, he turned to the other two. "I'm Garrett."

"My name is Ezra," he said with a smile. "So nice to finally meet you!"

Owen nodded in agreement. "I'm Owen. We've heard a lot about you."

Garrett flashed Hana a quizzical look.

"He's all business with me at work, but I've heard that he's fun to hang out with outside of that environment," Evelyn sing-songed.

"Oh, yeah," Ezra crooned. "You sound like you're a lot of fun to hang out with. I'm honestly surprised that Hana didn't introduce you sooner."

Hana rolled her eyes. "Sorry, it slipped my mind."

"For — what? — three months?" Ezra fixed her with a skeptical look. "I don't buy it."

"You're going to school as well?" Owen cut in, steady gaze on Garrett. When Garrett nodded, he asked, "what are you studying?"

"I'm studying to become a software engineer," Garrett said.

"Oh wow," Ezra said, "Owen is studying to become a software engineer too!"

Owen nodded. "I thought you looked familiar; we've shared some classes."

Garrett appeared to think about this for a moment, during which the rest of the drinks were brought to their table, before his eyes shone with recognition and he nodded. "Yeah, I remember you. You're usually sitting by the window or door."

"Yeah, typically across the table from you because you do the same. I suppose it’s an introvert thing?"

Garrett chuckled. “Maybe.”

"What a coincidence," Evelyn said. "Like it's fate!"

She laughed then while Hana shook her head and gave her shoulder a good push.

"It’s just a coincidence.” Hana said as Evelyn rubbed at her shoulder. “Anyways, Evelyn here is in the same program as me, and Ezra is studying to become a college professor in…"

She trailed off, turning a questioning gaze to Ezra.

"English," Ezra said with a laugh.

“When’s your birthday?” Evelyn asked, turning her attention back to Garrett, who raised a brow in question.

“August thirteenth,” he answered carefully.

“Wow, that’s one week before mine,” Hana said, her eyes widening slightly.

“Like I said,” Evelyn said, nudging Hana’s arm with her elbow, “it’s fate.”

"Oh, have you guys heard of Ichor Emergence?" Hana asked, ignoring Evelyn.

This pulled a smile from Garrett.

Ezra’s eyes twinkled. "Yeah, I have. In fact, I  _ play _ it!"

"Isn't it fun?"

"Yeah! And the plot is super cool and interesting!"

"I  _ love _ the eldritch horror."

"Did you know that you get a lot of the plot through items you pick up?" Owen asked, hiding a smile behind his coffee.

Garrett and Hana shared a confused look as Ezra nodded furiously with a big grin shining on his face.

"It’s really cool that they did that," Ezra chirped. "You guys should read the descriptions on the items you pick up."

“I’ll be sure to check it out the next time I get on,” Hana said with a grin. “The lore is super cool, so I want to be able to learn as much about it as I can.”

“Have you guys heard of Lone Fragment?” Garrett asked. “Hana showed it to me, and it’s pretty good.”

“Ooh,” Evelyn exclaimed, “yeah, I’ve seen that. It’s  _ so _ good.”

“It is,” Hana chirped. “I really love how human the characters are, you know?”

“Yeah.” Evelyn nodded. “You can totally see yourself meeting people like that in real life.”

Garrett nodded with a hum of agreement. “That always makes a series super good, when the characters are that realistic.”

“There’s a superhero show that’s inspired by Lone Fragment, and from what I’ve seen, the characters are just tropes,” Hana said with a frown. “It’s a little disappointing because the series had potential at first, but the writer just isn’t letting the characters develop beyond the tropes he based them on.”

“Oh, I know what you’re talking about,” Evelyn said with a roll of her eyes. “It could have been good, but you’re right when you say that the writer isn’t letting his characters develop. I’ll see one of them start to develop, and then they’ll just snap back to what they were in chapter one.”

Ezra pulled a disappointed look. “Eugh, that’s so annoying. I don’t know why writers do that, but I see it way too much.”

They continued to chat about various things after that, mainly shows and video games they enjoyed, with Ezra excitedly telling them about the game he’d gotten Hana to play.

They ultimately decided to go back to Hana’s apartment so that they could watch her play it again, seeing as she didn’t finish it the first time she played it. Evelyn sat snug against Hana’s left side, a blanket pulled up to her chin, while Ezra and Owen sat on the floor next to the coffee table. Garrett sat on Hana’s right side with about half a foot of space in between them.

Once dinner time rolled around, they decided to go to Jack’s Casket, a popular fast food restaurant. When they placed their orders and found a table to occupy, Evelyn gave Garrett and Hana a quizzical look.

“Are you two together?” she asked, pulling a startled laugh from Hana.

“No?” Hana said, looking at Garrett out of the corner of her eye.

“No,” Garrett confirmed, though he nudged his foot against hers underneath the table.

“Huh,” Evelyn gave a thoughtful frown, “after your display at the store the other night, I was convinced you two were together, and had been for a while.”

“No, we’re just friends,” Garrett said with a shake of his head.

After Ezra and Evelyn shared a look, Evelyn delivered a swift, yet painless kick to Hana’s ankle. When Hana gave her an offended and confused look, she returned an accusatory stare.

One week into the break, Hana and Garrett were sitting on her couch, watching Lone Fragment. She glanced to the time and sat up slightly when she saw that it was nearing dinner time.

“Do you want to learn how to make kimbap?” she asked as she stood from the couch.

He gave her a quizzical look. “What’s that?”

“It’s a Korean dish my mom made when I was a kid. Come on, I’ll show you.”

He stood up as well, grabbing the remote to pause the show, and followed her to the kitchen. Hana washed some rice and put it into the rice pot to cook, grabbing everything else they would need after.

“Everything needs to be cut into long strips,” she said with a gesture to the vegetables. “We can use eggs for one type and bulgogi for the other.”

“What’s bulgogi?” Garrett asked with a slight tilt of his head.

“It refers to a way that beef is prepared.” Hana pulled the beef in question from the fridge. “I had it marinate overnight so I could make this today. Do you want to prepare the vegetables while I cook the bulgogi and eggs?”

“Oh, sure.” Garrett turned to the cutting board and stared at it for a moment.

Hana watched him and then snorted out a laugh. "Do you need some help?"

He turned a sheepish look to her, drawing another laugh from her. She walked over to stand behind him, pulling her stool over from where it sat beside her fridge for when she needed to reach the top shelves in her home so she could see over his shoulder.

"You hold the knife like this," she said as she maneuvered the knife into his hand, moving his other hand into place on the vegetables, "and you put your other hand like this so you can guide the knife without cutting yourself. See, like this."

Keeping her hold on the back on his hand, she guided him in cutting along the vegetable she was using as an example. His skin heated up at the contact, his breath stuttering in his chest as it went on longer.

When Hana let go of Garrett’s hands, he nearly dropped the knife onto the counter, but tightened his hold at the last minute.

"Thanks," he stuttered, his face flushing a light red.

"Yeah," Hana said as she hopped down from the stool and pushed it back to its place beside the fridge. "If you need anymore help, just let me know."

They worked in relative silence, with Hana humming softly as she cooked. When she finished with what she was doing, she showed Garrett how to press the rice onto the seaweed and line all the ingredients up on top of it before rolling it up.

“You know,” Hana started as she worked, “it sounds like Amanda will be moving out of the state soon.”

Garrett paused in his movements, turning to give Hana an incredulous look. “Really?”

She nodded. “Yep. She and Elizabeth got into a fight, and Elizabeth ended it by talking about how she was glad for it.”

Garrett turned back to the kimbab he was working on. “Huh.”

As they continued to roll the kimbab up, they lined it up on the cutting board, where Hana eventually started cutting them up into bite-sized pieces.

"Try some," she said when she finished, holding the cutting board out to Garrett.

He pulled two off of the cutting board, one of each flavor, and tried each one separately.

"Wow," he said, eyes lighting up, "that's  _ really _ good."

"Isn't it?" Hana grinned and placed the cutting board on the center of the table.

They sat down across from each other and continued to eat, chatting every now and then until they were done.

"I don't think I can eat another bite," Garrett said, leaning back in his chair with a satisfied sigh. 

"I know," Hana groaned. "It’s one of my favorite dishes, but the rice makes it so filling."

Garrett let out a soft laugh. "Let’s clean up later, when it's easier to move."

"Okay." Hana laughed as she stood up to move the dishes they'd used into the sink to soak. "We can watch some more Lone Fragment in the meantime."

When a few hours had gone by and they found that they could move easier, the two of them went to the kitchen, where Hana got to work on washing the dishes and Garrett started wiping down the table and counters. As she washed the dishes, a knife slipped from her hand, and in her surprise, her hand snapped out to catch it.

This only earned her a cut on her palm, and the knife clattering into the sink anyway.

"Shit," she hissed, rinsing the soap from her hands and turning the water off so she could examine the damage.

Garrett was at her side automatically, hands pulling gently on her wrists so he could take a look.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "Shit, this cut is bad, but not deep enough to need stitches."

He grabbed a paper towel from the roll and patted the water from her hand, starting at the back and fingers and ending with the palm. Once her hand was dry, he grabbed another paper towel and pressed it over the cut, pulling a hiss of pain from Hana.

"Hold that there, okay?" he asked, only letting go of her hand when she nodded and placed her other hand over the paper towel. "Where’s your medkit?"

"It’s under the sink in the bathroom," Hana said, gesturing with a nod towards the bathroom.

Garrett nodded and walked in that direction, leaving Hana to sit down at the dinner table and wait. She chewed on her bottom lip, eyes pressed shut as she tried to ignore the throbbing in her palm.

"Okay, I found it," Garrett said after a few minutes — how had she not heard him come in?

Hana looked up at him, a pang of worry going through her gut; this was going to hurt.

"Let me see it," he said gently as he crouched in front of her. When she pulled the paper towel from her palm and he was able to see it, he gave a slight nod. "Looks like the bleeding has at least slowed."

He worked to prepare a cotton ball with some hydrogen peroxide, flashing her a concerned look as he moved it to hover over the cut.

"This is going to hurt,” he warned, his gaze never leaving hers.

Hana nodded, attempting to steel herself for what she knew was to come.

"Ow,  _ fuck _ ," she whimpered as the cottonball made contact with the cut.

Garrett winced and shook his head slightly. “Sorry.”

He continued working to clean the wound, even as Hana squeezed her eyes shut, bowed her head, and grappled at the back of the chair with her other hand. Once he finished, he pulled a patch of gauze from the healthkit and pressed it over the wound, wrapping it with adhesive medical tape to secure the patch.

“You should try to refrain from using this hand,” he said, resting the back of her hand in his right palm as his left held gently onto her wrist. “You’re lucky it’s your left hand, instead of your right.”

He was right; she  _ was _ lucky she’d somehow managed to injure her left hand. At least she would still be able to write and draw if she wanted to.

“Okay,” Hana said with a small sniffle and a nod. “Thanks.”

“I’ll finish washing the dishes.” Garrett stood up, gently releasing his hold on her hand. “You can just go sit down on the couch, okay? I’ll be right over so we can keep watching for the rest of the night.”

Hana nodded once more, standing up and moving to leave the kitchen.

“Oh,” Garrett said, giving Hana pause in her movements, “and if you notice any excessive bleeding or the wound gets worse or infected or something, go to the hospital to get it checked out, okay?”

“Okay.” Hana nodded and continued on her way to sit on the couch, chewing on the inside of her cheek and she settled down into the cushions.

She listened as Garrett continued washing dishes from where she had left off, blinking rapidly in an attempt to keep herself from crying from the sudden turn of events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	9. Egg City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The usual group get together for egg decorating. Fun ensues.

On Easter in April, Evelyn, Ezra, Owen, and Garrett all met up at Hana’s apartment. When they were all gathered around the kitchen table, Hana put a pot of water onto the stove to boil; once it was boiling, she put fifteen eggs into it and put a timer on for sixteen minutes. She then hopped up to sit on the counter facing the table so she could see everyone.

“Jeez, with all of you meeting up at  _ my _ place, I may have to go shopping for something bigger,” she said with a snort and a shake of her head.

“It’s nice to see that Garrett has joined the regular group,” Evelyn said with a not-so-discreet wink sent Hana’s way.

This caused Ezra to nearly choke on his drink and he pitched forward to lean over his legs. Owen placed a hand on his back and leaned to the side to get a good look at Ezra, who gave him a thumbs up and sat up snickering.

“I managed to save it before it went down the wrong tube,” he said with a grin. “You’ve got to work on your timing, Evelyn.”

Evelyn just raised a brow at him and shook her head slightly. “It’s not my fault you’ve got a drinking problem. You choke on your drinks almost every time we hang out; I’m always surprised when you  _ don’t _ .”

Garrett chuckled at this and gave Hana an inquiring look, to which she responded with a fervent nod.

“It’s not  _ that _ bad,” Ezra whined. “I just get a little too excited, is all! Besides,  _ you’re _ the ones who are like walking comedians half the time; get Hana and Evelyn into a room together and suddenly you’re at a comedy club!”

Hana threw her head back and laughed at that. She looked back at him and wiped a tear from her eye.

“Aw, you really think so?” she said.

“Hana and Evelyn: the comedy duo,” Owen said with a smile.

“Hey, if you’re coming to hang out with us for some free comedy, we might have to start charging ya,” Evelyn said with a wink.

At that point, the timer beeped and Hana dropped down from the counter. She turned the timer off, grabbed the pot, and took it over to the sink, where she dumped the hot water out and placed it under the faucet, turning the water on as cold as it would go.

When she moved away from the sink, Evelyn and Ezra walked over to get the egg dyes ready. Owen worked to get the other materials ready while Garrett stood by and watched. Once everything was ready and the eggs were properly cooled, Hana gave each person three eggs.

“All right,” she said as she finished divvying out the eggs, “each person only gets three eggs to decorate, so decorate them wisely!”

She sat down between Evelyn and Garrett and started drawing on her eggs with an invisible crayon; the designs she was drawing — which would no doubt look a little goofy — would show up when she dyed the eggs.

At some point, Garrett pulled his egg from the dye and turned it towards Hana.

“Look,” he said with a smile, “it’s Single Strike Woman, from the series by Two.”

Hana gave a laugh at that. “Single strike egg, here to kick the other eggs’ asses.”

This drew laughter from everyone else.

“This is perfect,” Ezra said, turning the scowling face he drew on his egg towards them. “My egg is a total scumbag. He deserves to get his ass beat.”

Evelyn pointed to the egg carton. “To egg jail, he goes!”

Ezra barked out a laugh and put his egg into one of the slots in the carton. “In the slammer, you go!”

Garrett gave a soft huff of laughter and moved to put his egg in the carton as well, but he was stopped by Evelyn.

“No, the hero of Egg City goes into the top section of the carton,” she said, voice quivering slightly with the effort to sound serious.

Owen placed a nest of napkins in the center of the lid of the egg carton. “A throne, for Egg City’s hero.”

Again, laughter echoed within the kitchen.

Once all of their eggs were decorated, all with the goofy faces of civilians and villains, Hana took out her phone and took a picture of their work. She created a group chat for the five of them and sent the picture to it with a caption that said, “The population of Egg City has been completed. Though, their lives will be short, they will not exist in vain. Who wants deviled eggs?”

Ezra let out a loud, raucous laugh when he saw the message.

“Your deviled eggs are the best,” Owen said with a smile as he watched Ezra double over from his laughter.

“Hell yeah,” Evelyn said with a fervent nod, though her eyes were tearing up from the effort of not joining Ezra in his laughter. As he gasped for air, she started to laugh as she said, “He’s totally going to die.”

Hana snorted and shook her head, and Ezra slowly began to regain his composure.

“That was so fucking funny,” he said as he wiped tears from his eyes. “Anyways, to answer your question,  _ yes _ , I would like to have some deviled eggs.”

Hana smiled and gathered the materials she would need to make them: mayo, mustard, salt, and paprika. She washed her hands and got to work on making the deviled eggs as everyone else worked to clean up their mess from decorating. Garrett hovered behind her, peering over her shoulder to see what she was doing.

“You don’t measure anything?” he asked, glancing at her face as she worked.

“Nope,” Hana said and she flashed him a smile. “It’s all to taste.”

“And she has  _ great _ taste,” Evelyn said, causing Hana to roll her eyes.

Once everything was mixed together and tasted  _ good _ , Hana worked to get the filling back into the egg whites; when she was done with that, she sprinkled paprika over the filling and popped one into her mouth to taste it.

“It’s good,” she said with a smile. “You guys can go at it! There’s twenty-nine, since I just ate one, but I have a feeling that won’t be enough for you guys since you’ve all — save for Garrett — eaten ten of my deviled eggs  _ each _ at one point or another.”

“Since Garrett has never had any,” Evelyn gave Hana a sly look, “we should let him have the first taste.”

Hana raised an eyebrow at her before nodding. “I mean, it technically won’t be the first taste, since I already had that, but sure, why not? You can have the second taste, Garrett.”

Garrett smiled at Hana. “Sure.”

He moved towards the counter and took one of the deviled eggs off of the plate, putting the whole thing into his mouth like he’d seen her do. When he finished it, his eyes lit up and he turned a dazzling grin towards Hana.

“It’s  _ really good _ ,” he said.

“See what Owen meant when he said that she makes the best deviled eggs?” Ezra said.

“They’re so much better than store-bought,” Owen said with a nod.

As Hana suspected, all thirty of the deviled eggs were finished within the night, with Ezra, Evelyn, and Garrett having the most.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a short chapter, just because it didn't feel like it belonged anywhere else ^^" Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	10. Sparkling Lights over the Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hana and Garrett go to the amusement park together.

Once summer break in mid-June hit, Hana once again found herself with a lot more free time than usual. When she wasn't spending time with her friends, she was often drawing, reading, or writing. Eventually, she even decided to start drawing comics, which she studied other comic artists' techniques for.

One week into summer break, about a week until July, saw Hana and Garrett walking around an amusement park with icees in hand. It had already been a few hours since they’d first arrived, which had the sun beginning to settle over the horizon.

They had gone on a couple of the rides already, with Hana laughing and full of mirth at the sight of Garrett screaming and clinging to the bars that made sure they stayed in the ride. He had requested that they take a break from the rides to walk around so his stomach could settle.

“You know what’ll be nice?” Hana asked, causing Garrett to give a quizzical hum. “Going on the ferris wheel at night.”

Garrett turned to look at her. “Oh?”

“It overlooks the city; you’ll be able to see the lights super clearly from up there!” Hana grinned at Garrett as he took a sip of his icee.

“Oh, that will be nice. It’ll also be a nice break from the roller coasters and stuff.”

Garrett looked around, eyes searching the various activities they could do in the meantime. He reached out to lightly press his forefinger to Hana’s arm, drawing her attention towards him so that he could point something out to her.

“Have you ever had an elephant ear?” he asked when she turned to look at what he had pointed to, eyes catching on a food stall a few meters away.

“I haven’t,” she said, turning a confused look toward Garrett. “What is it?”

“It’s good, is what it is.” Garrett laughed and pulled her to the food stall, where he ordered an elephant ear for them to share.

When it was finished and Garrett took the plate, Hana stared at the treat, which was what looked to be a fried dough that had been pounded flat and topped with powdered sugar in incredulity.

“What is it?” she asked, turning to give Garrett a skeptical look.

Garrett gave a loud laugh at that. “Probably exactly what it looks like. Just try it.”

He held the plate out to her, and she hesitantly pulled a piece from the edge and brought it to her mouth. It smelled sweet. When she put it into her mouth, her eyes lit up at the taste; it was still warm, with a subtle sweetness that wasn't overpowering.

"Wow," she breathed as she looked up at Garrett.

He smiled at her reaction, joy twinkling in his eyes. "Isn't it good?"

She nodded fervently. "It is! Why is it called that?"

"I think it's just because of the shape." He laughed slightly and gestured towards a bench that had a tree hanging over it with a nod. "Why don't we sit down?"

They walked to sit down at the bench, each taking turns pulling bites from the elephant ear until there was one bite left. Garrett grabbed it and smiled at Hana, lifting his hand until he held the bite in front of her mouth.

She blinked in surprise at the gesture, face heating up as his hand bobbed up and down, goading her to take the bite from him. When she realized that he wouldn't withdraw his offer, Hana tentatively took the bite from his hand, her face too hot and cheeks tingling.

Garrett’s eyes were so fond and unguarded as he let out a small laugh. He pulled his hand back and licked the powdered sugar from his fingers, his gaze never leaving hers.

It only served to make Hana’s body feel like it was on fire.

She grabbed the plate from in between them and stood up quick enough that some of the powdered sugar went flying into the air.

“Where’s a trash can?” she asked, head practically spinning from the heat and the speed at which she stood. When she spotted one across the way from them, she said, “Oh, there one is!”

She walked to the trash can and threw the plate away, nearly jumping out of her skin when she turned around and saw Garrett standing right behind her.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulders to steady her, “I didn’t mean to surprise you.”

Hana took a deep breath to calm herself down and shook her head. “No, it’s okay.”

Garrett smiled and lowered his hands, his head lifting as his eyes trailed along the darkened sky above them.

“It’s gotten pretty dark.” He turned a smile to Hana. “Do you think now is a good time to go on the ferris wheel?”

“Oh, yeah.”

Nerves forgotten, Hana nodded ecstatically and turned to rush to the line leading to the ferris wheel with Garrett right at her side.

“It looks like we’ll make it on the next ride.” Hana grinned up at Garrett, who smiled wide in return, his eyes glimmering with unadulterated joy.

As they waited in line, Hana pulled her wallet from her purse and sorted through her money, grabbing the amount they would need for two tickets. Then, suddenly, the line was moving up and she had to rush to put her wallet away, close her purse, and sling it back over her shoulder and onto her back.

When they got up to the ticket booths, she held up two fingers with a smile and said, “Two tickets, please.”

The woman in the booth offered a small smile and nodded, processing the payment and handing them their tickets. The person at the gates took their tickets and guided them to sit on the gondola, closing the door behind them, and then they moved upwards to let the next people on.

“Wow,” Hana breathed as she looked out towards the city.

“It’ll look even better from the top,” Garrett said.

Hana just laughed softly at that, turning to look at Garrett once more.

“What are your plans for the future?” he asked as their gondola moved up.

“What do you mean?” she asked, tilting her head quizzically.

“Like,” his eyes wandered in what Hana assumed to be thought, “Once I finish school and get into my career, I want to eventually get married and have kids.”

Hana blinked in surprise. “Oh. Those kinds of plans?”

“Yeah.” Garrett laughed sheepishly, his gaze dropping to the side.

“Well,” she tapped her fingertips to her chin thoughtfully, “I definitely want to finish school and get into my career.”

Hana paused as she thought. She’d wanted to have kids since she was a child, right? She remembered that she had started worrying about things like infertility when she’d first started having menstruation cycles, at the very least. In fact, she had even picked out and written down four names she’d like to give her kids — two boy’s names, and two girl’s names.

“I want to get married and have two kids.” Hana smiled up at Garrett.

“Oh?” He smiled back. “I want two kids, too.”

_ How strange _ , Hana found herself thinking,  _ that our plans are so similar _ .

Once the gondola moved to the top, she scooted closer to the window and stared out over the glimmering lights of the city. She glanced towards Garrett, and he turned from the window to look at her, suddenly looking somewhat apprehensive.

He released his bottom lip from his teeth to say, “I have something for you.”

“What?” Hana said, blinking in surprise.

He gave a sheepish smile and reached into his pocket, his gaze dropping from hers. “My sister helped me make it.”

He pulled a necklace from his pocket, a small scallop shell that had been dipped about one-third of the way in gold adorning the gold chain.

“I found the shell, and she came up with the idea because she makes a lot of jewelry.” He still wasn’t quite meeting her eye as he held the necklace out to her.

“It’s lovely,” she breathed, reaching out to gingerly take the scallop shell in her grasp to examine it closer. “Here.”

Hana gathered her dark hair over her shoulder and turned her back to Garrett.

For a moment, he didn’t do anything. Then, he said, “Oh,” and Hana heard him shifting on the bench. Then, he placed the necklace around her neck and worked to get the clasp shut over the chain.

Once he finished, he gingerly placed the chain on the back of her neck, the brush of contact drawing a shiver from her. As Garrett pulled away from Hana, she pushed her hair back again and turned to face him.

“How does it look?” she asked as she reached up to lightly press her forefinger and middle finger to the pendant.

“ _ Beautiful _ ,” Garrett said breathlessly.

Hana smiled at that, her cheeks heating up slightly. “Thank you.”

Suddenly, they were at the bottom and the door was being opened up. Hana thanked the worker on her way out, with Garrett following suit, and they decided to call it a night. As they walked towards the gate, they were close enough that their knuckles brushed against each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wee, amusement park date!! Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	11. Soft Words Spoken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's The Chapter.

Two weeks into July, while she was sitting in front of her coffee table with her laptop out and a drawing she was working on open, a knock came to her apartment door. She stood up and stretched so hard that her muscles trembled from the strain. Letting her arms down with a sigh, Hana walked to the door and pulled it open, blinking in surprise when she saw Garrett standing there.

“Oh, hi,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting you to drop by so suddenly.”

He laughed and held a container of food up.

“I brought Chinese food.” His gaze landed on the necklace she was still wearing and he smiled, suddenly looking enchanted. "You're still wearing that."

"Yeah, I am. Don't worry, I take it off to shower and sleep and stuff." Hana gave a light laugh as she stepped out of the way so he could come in. “Did you just come from work?”

“Yeah,” he sighed as he took his shoes off. “Well, I went home to clean up first, but yeah.”

They went to the kitchen together, where they sat at the table so Garrett could be with Hana while she ate.

“Amanda has been coming by a lot,” Garrett said, gaze turning downward.

“I was noticing that,” Hana said as she crossed her legs at the ankles. “It almost seems like she’s…”

She trailed off.

“Yeah.” Garrett nodded, now looking up at her. “Like she’s keeping an eye on us?”

Hana nodded. “It’s kind of creepy.”

Garrett released a long, suffering sigh. “It’s not entirely unexpected, I guess. I should have gotten a restraining order or something when we broke up.”

“Can I ask what happened?”

He stared at her when the words slipped from her mouth, his expression unreadable and mouth unmoving. Then, he glanced to the side and nodded.

“You can probably guess from what she’s doing now, but Amanda was incredibly controlling. She would try to tell me who I could and couldn’t hang out with; more often than not, I was kept from everyone, save for my family, but even that was a close call.”

Garrett crossed his arms on the table, his eyes stormy.

“She has a violent temper, which you’ve seen. She would often try to start fights with me about what I was or wasn’t doing; at some point, I decided it wasn’t worth the trouble and stopped fighting with her. That’s likely the reason she calls me cold now.”

When Garrett stopped talking, Hana waited to see if he was going to say anything else. Instead, he uncrossed his arms and lay his palms on the table, offering a smile to her.

“But that’s in the past,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes. “Meeting you has helped me realize that your past experiences don’t have to define your present or future.”

Hana’s heart did a somersault in her chest; it felt like it was trying to escape.

“Oh,” she stuttered out. “Really?”

Garrett gave a soft laugh. “Yes, really. Seeing how you deal with her is astonishing; I felt like you were returning to me the power that she stole. You were right — she can’t hurt me anymore, especially since now it sounds like she’ll be moving out of state soon. Thank you for helping me realize that.”

His tone was so sincere and vulnerable, quivering softly with the strength of his emotions. His eyes shone bright, like the clouds of a storm had parted to show that the sun had been there all along.

Hana acted without thinking. She stretched her left arm out, hovering it over his right, hesitating. Garrett lifted his hand and entwined their fingers together.

“Will you,” he paused, throat bobbing as he swallowed nervously, “be my girlfriend?”

Hana’s heart  _ soared _ .

“I would love to,” she said breathlessly, lips pulling into a smile.

Garrett smiled wide at that, his eyes twinkling brightly.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper as he pulled their hands up to his mouth to press a gentle kiss to her knuckles.

Hana’s breath caught in her throat, her knuckles tingling from the contact, even as Garrett lowered their hands. Then, he smiled and gestured towards her food.

“Aren’t you going to finish that?” he asked.

“Oh,” Hana exclaimed, picking her chopsticks up from where they rested on the container. “Yeah, I am.”

She gave a breathless laugh as she continued eating her food.

When she finished her food, Garrett took the container and put it in the recycling bin as she placed her chopsticks beside the sink. When she turned around, he was standing at the edge of the kitchen, watching her. He looked contemplative, one hand on the wall next to him, his body turned partially towards her like he had been in the middle of turning to face her before ultimately pausing in his movements.

Hana walked towards him, reaching up to run the backs of her fingers over his cheek. This prompted Garrett to turn fully toward her. He reached up and cupped his hands over her cheeks, forefingers rustling her earrings and thumbs rubbing soothingly over her cheekbones. His eyes searched hers as she reached up to rest her hands on his shoulders.

They stood like that for a while, unmoving as they stared into each other’s eyes. Then, Hana moved her hands so that they were clasped behind Garrett’s neck. His eyes gained a sudden confidence and he leaned down, tilting Hana’s head upwards as he pressed his lips against hers. Hana’s head swam at the gesture, though she found herself leaning into the contact, her lips slotting against his as she tilted her head slightly to the right.

Then, it was gone, and Garrett was looking down at her with a warm smile. He pressed his forehead against hers, and she tilted her head up to press a quick, chaste kiss to his lips.

“You’re beautiful,” he breathed, his hands moving to run through her hair.

Then, he blinked and looked down. When Hana followed his gaze, she saw Emiko rubbing against his legs, her whiskers curled forward and eyes squinted happily. Garrett let out a breathless laugh and leaned away from Hana to lean down and pet Emiko. Hana leaned down in front of him to pet her as well; Emiko purred at the attention.

“What were you doing before I got here?” Garrett asked, gaze flitting up to Hana.

“Oh, I was drawing,” she said with a sheepish smile.

Garrett smiled, bright and happy, and he nodded. “Oh? You struck me as being the creative type.”

Hana snickered at that. “Really? What gave you that idea?”

He gave a thoughtful hum. “Well, for starters, it’s the way you take in the world around you, like you’re studying the beauty in it. Your world must be so colorful and bright, for you to look at it with such wonder.”

Hana’s breath was punched out of her chest at that.

“May I,” he paused to take a breath, “see what you’re working on?”

“Well,” Hana coughed out a laugh to force her breathing to return to normal, “it’s just a sketch right now, but I can show you something I’ve finished.”

Garrett’s eyes lit up at that, and he followed Hana when she walked him into the living room. He looked at her creations with awe, asking questions when he realized that they were her own creations for her own stories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	12. Birthdays and Bets and Family Meetings, Oh No!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hana's and Garrett's birthdays are one week apart. They decide to get each other gifts and spend their days together.

On August thirteenth, Hana walked up the steps to Garrett’s house with a small, neatly-wrapped box, a card, and a homemade cake in hand. She reached up and rapped her knuckles in the door.

When he pulled the door open, he blinked in surprise upon seeing her.

“You didn’t let me know you were stopping by,” he said, the corners of his lips curling into a bright smile. “Come on in.”

He stepped aside and Hana walked in. Once her shoes were off and the door was closed and locked, they walked into the kitchen together. Once there, Hana placed the cake down on the counter and turned towards Garrett, holding the present and card out.

"You remembered," he said, sounding pleasantly surprised as he took them from her hands with a smile. “Thank you.”

Once he had them, he placed the card down on top of the container the cake was in and worked to get the present open with the same level of care that he had shown on New Year’s Eve, though it seemed to come a lot easier this time than it had back then.

When he pulled the box open, he looked up at her with a stunned look on his face.

“Wow,” he breathed as he pulled the pocket watch from the box.

The case had an intricate design showing something Hana had seen that Garrett was passionate about: a flower in the middle with leaves underneath it, vines stretching out towards the edges of the case. When he opened it and saw the little window underneath the hands to show the gears running the watch, he gave a soft huff of laughter. On the inside of the case, the date 13/07/2018 was carved into the metal.

Their anniversary.

He ran his thumb gingerly over the engraving, turning to look up from the watch and to Hana with eyes that seemed to  _ glow _ from his happiness.

“Thank you so much,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Hana moved closer to him, leaning up on her toes to press a sweet kiss to his cheek. “You’re welcome. Happy birthday.”

He moved to cup one hand over her cheek, and she found herself leaning into the warmth of the contact, her eyes fluttering shut. He leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips.

“I love you so much,” he breathed, causing her eyes to shoot open to look at him in surprise.

After blinking a couple of times to chase the initial surprise away, Hana smiled as her chest filled with a comfortable warmth.

“I love you too,” she murmured, leaning up to kiss his cheek again.

Garrett ran his fingers through her hair as he leaned away to open the card. He smiled as he realized that it was homemade, his fingertips running gently over the drawing on the front.

Once he finished looking the card over and reading everything she had written in it, Garrett turned to Hana and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. She lifted her arms, her fingertips trailing up his sides as she moved her hands to his back to return the hug.

“Do you want to get dinner?” she asked. “It’ll be my treat, for your birthday.”

Garrett gave a soft laugh at that.

“Sure,” he said, pulling back from the hug. “Cake afterwards?”

Hana nodded with a grin tugging at her lips.

They went to a restaurant of his choosing, and once they’d been seated and had ordered their drinks and food, Garrett clasped his hands together on the table, giving Hana a wobbly smile.

“I’ll be quitting from Health Precision,” he said, his voice brimming with a nervous tremor. “I finished my degree, so I’ll be moving onto my career soon.”

“Really?” Hana exclaimed. “Congratulations! Have you found a place to work, yet?”

“Yeah, it’s a company called Mystic. I spoke with some employees about what the pay and environment look like, and it seems like it’ll be a good place for me. I know that, at some point, they’ll start letting me work from home, too, which will be a plus because I need to be able to take care of my plants.”

“That’s so awesome.” Hana mirrored the smile Garrett was giving her, leaning forward to take his hands in hers. “Isn’t it an awesome feeling, to start on the next step of your life?”

Garrett’s smile widened at that, his eyes dancing with stars. “It’s an amazing feeling. I’m so glad that you’ll be a part of it.”

She giggled and brought one of his hands to her lips, pressing a kiss to his fingers before lowering his hands back to the table as their orders arrived. They continued to chat over their food, until they were finished; then, Hana paid for their food and they went back to Garrett’s house to spend the rest of his birthday together.

One week later, on Hana’s birthday, Garrett knocked on her apartment door. Hana had just finished getting ready to go out to dinner later with the group. She walked to the door and pulled it open, letting him in with a smile.

He held one of his hands behind his body, the other holding a decently-sized box that was neatly-wrapped against his stomach. A cheesecake rested atop the present, which pulled a delighted smile from Hana. He stepped inside with a sheepish smile, pulling his shoes off and pushing them out of the way with his feet.

"Can you go to your room really fast?" he said tentatively. At Hana’s tilt of her head, he added, "I want to get things set up out here for you."

"Okay," Hana said with a nod, trotting to her room and sitting down on her bed to wait.

She waited all of three minutes before he was in the doorway with a big smile lighting up his face.

"Everything's ready," he said, and then he disappeared from her doorway.

Hana stood with a soft laugh and followed him into the kitchen. When she looked at the counter, her eyes widened in surprise and she glanced up at Garrett.

On the counter, there was a glass vase with a pink bow tied around it, an inch from the top with a large, beautiful bouquet set carefully within it, placed meticulously next to the present he had brought, which had a sealed envelope on top. The cake was out of sight, though Hana assumed it had been put in the fridge already.

Garrett shifted closer to the bouquet and gestured to it.

"As you know, my parents tend to flowers and provide custom bouquets,” he said, gaze flitting amongst the flowers before coming to rest on Hana. “I picked the flowers based on their meanings, which I used to study with my mom when I lived back at home.

“The red chrysanthemum and rose symbolize love; the clematis symbolizes mental beauty; the edelweiss symbolizes courage and devotion; the forget-me-not symbolizes true love’s memories; the heliotrope symbolizes eternal love and devotion; the honeysuckle symbolizes the bonds of love; and the white jasmine symbolizes sweet love and amiability.”

Hana’s cheeks heated up at that, her lips subconsciously pulling into a bright smile. She walked over to Garrett and placed her hands on his cheeks, pulling him down into a kiss.

“Thank you so much,” she said, pressing their foreheads together before letting him go.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead as he stood up straight once more.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he said with a laugh. “You still haven’t opened your present, or read your card.”

She laughed at that, turning her attention to the card and opening it up. While the card itself was sweet, what was truly lovely was the message he had written at the bottom of it.

“ _ Happy birthday to a truly wonderful woman. You have given my life color, and now these flowers seem so bright in comparison to what they used to look like in my eyes. I hope that you can continue to gaze upon the world with the same love and wonder that you do now; it makes me so happy when you look at the things I show you with that look, like you’re seeing the most beautiful thing for the first time in your life. I know you’re not — you look at the sunset that way, and I’m sure you look at the sunrise the same way. You just see beauty at every turn, and I hope you never, ever lose that. _

_ Happy birthday, _

_ Garrett _ ”

A small droplet of water hit her hand where it hovered over the bottom of the card, and Hana realized she was crying. She looked up at Garrett, a wobbly smile on her face as tears clung to her lashes.

“Garrett,” she said in a warbled voice.

He gave a strained smile — the sight of her crying was still upsetting to him, it seemed — and he moved closer to her, wrapping his arms around her and pressing her cheek to his chest. The sound of his steady heartbeat and deep breaths helped to calm the rush of emotions — love, happiness — she’d felt upon reading his words. She took a deep breath and looked up at him, squinting each eye shut that he swiped his thumb under.

Then, his smile relaxed as he looked into her eyes and he released his hold on her.

“Sorry,” he murmured, his smile turning apologetic, “I didn’t mean to make you cry on your birthday.”

“It’s okay,” Hana countered quickly, her lips pulling into a grin. “They were happy tears!”

She gave a laugh and turned to the present.

“Should I open this now?”

“I want to be here when you do.”

She worked to open the present, putting the wrapping paper on the floor for Emiko, which she happily hopped into. When she looked at the contents, she gave a gasp as she saw a drawing tablet that she would be able to use rather easily outside of her apartment.

“Garrett,” she said, turning widened eyes to him.

He offered a sheepish smile in return, though his expression quickly turned into one of shock when she threw her arms around him.

“Thank you so much,” she said. “This means so much to me — and I’m not just talking about the drawing tablet.”

This drew a snort of laughter from him.

“Happy birthday, Hana,” he said, pressing a kiss to her temple.

“Oh.” Hana leaned away from Garrett, though her arms stayed wrapped around his shoulders. “I’m going to dinner with the others and was going to text you about it, but you ended up showing up here before I could. Do you want to come with us?”

He smiled slightly and nodded. “Sure. Why wouldn’t I want to go to my girlfriend’s birthday dinner?”

Hana snorted at that and pulled away from the hug. “Then we should get going. We agreed to be there at four!”

When they showed up at the restaurant, hand in hand, Evelyn, Ezra, and Owen had already gotten a table for them. In fact, it seemed that they’d already ordered drinks for the two of them as well. Hana laughed when she saw the Mountain Dew placed on the table for her, and what looked to be a Pepsi waiting for Garrett.

“You owe me five dollars,” Ezra said to Evelyn when they pulled into their seats.

“I was just hoping that I wouldn’t be a fifth wheel,” Evelyn said with a roll of her eyes, pulling a five dollar bill from her wallet and slapping it into Ezra’s outstretched hand.

“You guys were betting on us?” Hana asked incredulously.

Owen gave a soft huff of laughter.

“Yeah, it started because Ezra betted that he thought you two were together,” he said, dark gaze on his menu. “Evelyn betted the opposite because, well, you just heard.”

“When were you going to tell us?” Evelyn asked.

“I guess it kind of,” Hana paused, her gaze flitting to Garrett, “slipped my mind?”

“Yeah?” Ezra said with a laugh. “Just like how it slipped your mind to let me know that he’s cute?”

“It’s only been a month.” Hana rubbed the back of her head.

“A  _ month _ ?” Ezra and Evelyn spoke in unison, staring at Hana in incredulity.

“You’re really making yourself out to be the forgetful type,” Owen said, closing his menu and setting it at the edge of the table.

“I mean,” Hana laughed awkwardly, pulling her Mountain Dew closer to herself, “I kind of am?”

“Don’t I know it,” Evelyn said with a shake of her head. “Anyways, congrats, you two. We’ve honestly been waiting for this to happen, even though I betted against it.”

“Yeah, you two are super obvious, you know,” Ezra said, giving a snort. “Anyways, do you know what you want to order?”

Hana nodded. “I’ve got my regular order all ready to go.”

Garrett raised an eyebrow at her, the corners of his lips twitching upwards into a fond smile.

“I’ll need a second to look over the menu,” he said.

He pulled the menu over to himself and mulled over the burgers section for a minute or so, before he pointed to one of the spicy burgers.

“I’ll go with this one,” he said.

“Ooh,” Ezra leaned over to look at Garrett’s choice, “that one is pretty spicy, so I hope you’re ready.”

Garrett gave a small laugh at that. “I’m sure I can handle it.”

When their waiter came around to their table, they placed their orders.

“We have your gifts in Owen’s car,” Evelyn said when their waiter walked away.

“Yeah, we’re going to give them to you after dinner,” Ezra added with a smile. “Did you already get a gift from Garrett?”

Hana didn’t like the way Ezra waggled his eyebrows when he asked that. Neither did Evelyn, if her swift kick to his shin was anything to go off of.

“He got me a mobile drawing tablet,” Hana said.

Evelyn and Ezra both gave a dramatic “ooh” at that, with Ezra nudging Owen in the arm with his elbow.

“Together for a month and he’s already spoiling her,” he said, drawing a laugh from Owen.

“I bet he’s been spoiling her since near the beginning,” Evelyn said.

“Oh yeah?” Ezra leaned towards her. “How much?”

“Ten bucks.” Evelyn crossed her arms with a triumphant smirk.

“Well, I bet that he’s been spoiling her since about a month before they got together.”

“Get ready to lose that one,” Garrett said with a laugh. “We’ve been exchanging gifts since before Christmas of last year.”

Ezra grumbled as he pulled a ten dollar bill from his wallet and handed it to Evelyn.

“Hell yeah,” she said, grinning as she tucked it away. “I just made back what I lost, and then some.”

They continued to chat through dinner, and when they finished eating and paid, they walked outside and met up at Owen’s car.

"Why don't we meet up at my apartment?" Hana suggested. "Garrett brought cheesecake, so if you want to sing to me, it'll be there."

Owen gave a soft chuckle at that.

"Cheesecake sounds good," he said.

Ezra nodded ecstatically in agreement.

Evelyn shook her head as she said, "Cheesecake isn't my thing, but I'll still come over to hang out and sing."

They met up at Hana’s apartment, where Evelyn and Ezra proceeded to give "ooh"s and "ahh"s about the bouquet. Once the cheesecake was pulled from the fridge, Hana was sung to and slices were divvied out.

Then, her presents were given to her. Owen simply gave her thirty dollars, Evelyn got a nice notebook for her, and Ezra bought her a nice mechanical pencil for when she decided to do art traditionally.

"Thanks, you guys," Hana said as she gave them all quick hugs at the door. "This birthday was an awesome one; thanks for being here with me."

Evelyn nudged her shoulder as Hana drew away from their hug.

"No need to thank us," she said with a laugh.

"Yeah, we're your best friends," Ezra added with a grin.

"You know we're always here for you," Owen said.

"You guys are so good to me." Hana wiped an imaginary tear from her eye, giving a sniffle for added effect. "I'll see you all later. Be safe on your ways home."

As they left, Hana watched them until they were safely down the stairs; she then closed the door and turned to Garrett with a smile.

“I’m going to have to drop by home to spend some time with my family,” she said. “Do you want to come with?”

He gave a nervous smile. “Sure. You’ve already met my family, after all.”

Hana flashed him a bright grin as she got ready to leave again, with him following her movements. Before long, they were in her car and on their way to her parents’ house.

“Just so you know,” she said as she drove, “I have two younger sisters and one older brother. They’re all pretty rowdy, so I’m sorry if they scare you off.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Garrett said with a snort of laughter. “I mean, you saw how rowdy and spontaneous my family can be.”

“That I did.” Hana laughed.

When they pulled into the driveway and got out, Yumi came out to greet them.

“Hey, Hana, happy birthday,” she called as she walked over and pulled Hana into a tight hug. “Is this Garrett? I’m Yumi; nice to meet you.”

“Why don’t I introduce him to the family as a whole?” Hana said with a laugh as she pulled away from Yumi and started towards the front door.

“I met him first.”

Hana didn’t even need to look towards her youngest sister to know that she was wearing a triumphant grin.

When they got inside and took their shoes off, Yumi walked the two of them to the family room.

“Guess who’s here,” she sang.

“Hi, Hana,” their mom said with a smile. “Happy birthday.”

Hana smiled as Liam, Mina, and their dad gave a chorus of “happy birthday”s as well.

“Thanks, everyone,” she said, before turning to gesture to Garrett. “This is Garrett, my boyfriend.”

“Really?” Yumi said, the look in her eyes turning knowing. “How long have you been together now?”

“We’ve known each other since November of last year, but we started going out a month ago.” Hana walked over to sit down on the recliner.

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Garrett said with a nervous smile.

Mina simply gave Garrett a wary look before giving a terse smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes and turning her attention back to her phone.

“That’s Mina,” Yumi said with a wave towards the other.

Liam studied Garrett for a bit before giving a nod. “I’m Liam. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Xavier,” Hana’s dad said with a curt nod. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“‘Finally’?” Garrett echoed, turning a confused look on Hana, who gave Yumi an accusational look.

“I told them about how you spent the night at his place,” Yumi said, snickering. “It’s not every day Hana spends the night at someone else’s place, especially if that someone isn’t Ezra or Evelyn.”

“You can just call me Nari,” Hana’s mom said as she pulled open a drawer in the coffee table and produced a card. “It’s a pleasure.”

She then stood up and walked to Hana, handing her the card before she turned and sat down on the couch again.

“Hey Hana,” Yumi said, pulling Hana’s attention to her. “I found some awesome AMVs for Lone Fragment. I was gonna send them to you, but it’d be better to show them to you in person and see your real-time reaction.”

“Give me a second to open my card.” Hana laughed when this caused Yumi to give a slight pout.

She then opened the envelope of the card and jumped when she pulled it up to read it and a check fell out. Yumi, Liam, and their mom laughed about that, causing Hana to narrow her eyes playfully at them.

“I just wasn’t expecting it to  _ fall out _ of the card, is all,” she said, her lips curling into a playful smile.

“At least it didn’t jump out and attack your face or something,” her mom said with a laugh.

Hana laughed at that and took the check to place it on top of the envelope, moving then to read the card.

The card itself was sweet, but her family’s individual birthday wishes drew soft amused huffs from Hana as she read them, namely Liam’s and Yumi’s messages.

“Thanks, everyone,” she said with a smile when she finished reading through all the messages.

“You’re welcome,” her mom said as everyone else nodded.

“I can’t believe you’re already twenty-two,” Yumi said as she leaned back into the cushions of the love seat. “Time sure flies, huh?”

Hana snorted at that. “I thought I was still twenty earlier this week. It was super weird.”

“ _ Twenty _ ?” Yumi leaned forward, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head.

“Yeah. I had to remind myself that I couldn’t be a supervisor at work if I wasn’t twenty-one.” Hana laughed. “Anyways, you had some AMVs to show me?”

“Yeah.” Yumi nodded and stood from the love seat, stretching her arms above her head. Then, she turned her attention towards Garrett and smiled. “You can come with.”

Hana tucked the card and check back into the envelope and stood up. The three of them walked into the living room and Yumi put the videos on. They watched AMVs and talked about what they enjoyed from the videos until Hana and Garrett decided to go back to her apartment before it got too late.

“Your family isn’t so wild,” Garrett said during the drive back.

“You’re only saying that because you haven’t eaten dinner with them yet,” Hana said with a laugh.

When they got back to her apartment and took their shoes off, Emiko rushed over to them with her tail up as she let out a few small chirps of greeting.

"Want to watch some Lone Fragment?" Hana asked as she crouched down to pet Emiko.

“Sure,” Garrett said with a nod as he leaned down to pet Emiko as well. “Seeing those AMVs really made me want to watch the actual show.”

They sat together on the couch, legs tangled up between them, and turned the show on. They watched for a couple of hours, with Hana getting up to make them some popcorn about halfway through.

Once nighttime hit, however, Garrett grabbed the remote and hit the pause button.

“Are you allowed on the roof?” he asked as he put the remote on the coffee table.

Hana sat up and gave a thoughtful hum, fingers reaching up to tap on her chin as she mulled it over.

“I think so,” she said finally. “Why?”

Garrett smiled and stood up. “Do you want to look at the stars?”

At this, Hana was on her feet and grappling at Garrett’s hands with a grin.

“Oh, do I!” She clasped his hands to her chest, smile bright and eyes shining. “I’ve never thought of doing that! Why not?”

He gave a soft laugh and gently tugged his hands free from hers. “I’m not sure. But, at least you have me here to come up with the idea.”

Hana let out a soft laugh as she rushed to the door and pulled her shoes on. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go.”

This drew another laugh from Garrett, but he complied, and soon they were on the roof. He moved to sit down on the center of the roof, turning to look at Hana and patting the ground next to him. She trotted over and sat next to him, leaning her weight back on her hands as she turned her gaze skyward.

“Oh wow,” she murmured. “You can see Mars to the lower right of the moon.”

“You’re right,” Garrett breathed. “It’s super bright right now, huh?”

“Yeah.”

They sat there until it was time for Garrett to go home, pointing out constellations and particularly bright stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	13. New Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrett has a surprise for Hana. Their lives are now fully intertwined.

In November, four months after they’d made their relationship official, Hana and Garrett sat in her living room. They were finishing up with an episode of Lone Fragment, though it was the last episode they could watch until the next one came out.

“Aw, what a shame,” Hana whined as the episode finished. “We’re all caught up now.”

“That just means we have to wait to watch new episodes as they come out,” Garrett said with a soft laugh.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Hana sat up from her reclined position on the couch and stretched. “I just like the possibility of being able to binge a show, you know?”

“Yeah, but I  _ know _ you’ve watched shows as they came out.” Garrett stood from the couch and stretched as well.

Hana laughed at that. “Guilty as charged.”

Sitting back down, Garrett gave a soft, thoughtful hum and glanced down. “Close your eyes for me, okay?”

This earned him a quizzical look, but Hana did as she was asked.

“Now hold your hand out, palm up and open.”

She giggled as she did so. “What’s this about?”

“You’ll see.”

He placed his palm against the back of her hand, fingers curling around it to stabilize it. Then, he pressed something metal into her hand and withdrew both of his.

“You can open your eyes now,” he said, a smile evident in his voice.

When she opened her eyes and looked into her palm, she saw a key twinkling up at her. She turned an inquiring gaze up to Garrett to find him staring back at her expectantly.

“Well, we’ve been together for four months now,” he started, “so I was thinking that maybe…”

“I could move in with you?” Hana finished, her head tilted slightly to the side.

He nodded, his lips pulled into a nervous smile.

“Yeah, that sounds nice.” Hana smiled, reaching out to take Garrett’s hands in hers. “I’ll get the paperwork done here and start packing my things up.”

She leaned forward to press a kiss to his cheek.

“Would you mind it too terribly if I got rid of my bed and shared your master bed with you?” She sat back on the couch, folding one leg underneath herself.

Garrett looked up at her with a smile, eyes twinkling. “I wouldn’t mind it at all.”

He helped her with getting her things packed up and moved over, though the first things he took were Emiko and all of her things. He told her that Emiko seemed to have settled in fairly easily during the week, which was to be expected, given how adaptable her breed was. In fact, when Hana had shown up with the rest of her things one week later, Emiko had excitedly greeted her at the edge of the walkway when she saw her.

“Hey, girl,” Hana called, crouching down so Emiko could sniff her hands.

Once she was done investigating and refamiliarizing herself with Hana, Emiko rubbed her face against her hand, tucking her head into her palm so that Hana could scratch her cheek.

“She missed you,” Garrett said with a smile.

“I can tell.” Hana looked up at him, reaching down to lift Emiko into her arms.

Garrett laughed softly when Emiko bumped her forehead to Hana’s cheek and took hold of her luggage, turning and taking it to his — now their — room so she could unpack it when she was done catching up with Emiko.

When Emiko finally let Hana put her down, she went to their room and started opening up her bags. While she was unpacking her things, namely her clothes, she found that Garrett had already made room for her clothes in the closet and dresser. She smiled as she worked to put hers away.

"All done," Hana sang when her clothes were all neatly put away.

"We still need to find a place to put your decorations," Garrett said from the doorway. "I might order some shelves for your things."

"Aw," she cooed, a smile on her face as she stood up and stretched. "That’s so thoughtful."

Garrett gave a snort of laughter. "Yeah. Do you want to take a snack break?"

"Sure."

They walked into the kitchen, where Garrett pulled some charcuterie and a fruit tray from the fridge. They sat down at the table and snacked on things from both trays.

It took another half a week to get the rest of Hana’s things unpacked and put up.

The week after they finished moving all of Hana’s things in, she was standing in front of the stove preparing scrambled eggs, hash browns, breakfast sausage, and bacon for some breakfast burritos when Garrett’s arms slithered around her waist and his forehead was pressed into the crook of her neck.

“Good morning,” she crooned, earning a grunt from him.

One thing she had begun to realize after moving in with him was that he was  _ not _ a morning person and often took some time to wake up, even in the late morning. While she could definitely relate to that, it was still kind of endearing to see him drag himself from bed so that he could spend his morning with her before she went to school or he had to go to work.

“Do breakfast burritos sound good this morning?” she asked.

At this, Garrett stood up straight and gave a yawn, pulling away from the hug to run his fingers through her hair, working knots and tangles out carefully as he found them.

“Yeah, that sounds great,” he said, voice still rough from sleep.

“Good.” Hana laughed. “Even if you said no, I’m already making them, so that’s what we’re getting.”

Garrett snorted at that and leaned over her shoulder, hooking a finger underneath her chin and turning her head to press a kiss to her lips; though, before he could get to his destination, Hana leaned away and wrinkled her nose at him.

“I only kiss people who’ve brushed their teeth in the morning.”

Garrett froze in his movements, eyes widening marginally as he processed this, before he leaned away and let out a loud, mirthful laugh.

“Fine,” he drawled, amusement still evident in his voice, “I’ll go brush my teeth so I can give you a good morning kiss.”

Hana laughed as he walked out of the kitchen, tossing a mock pout over his shoulder as he disappeared around the corner.

“What a goof,” she said to Emiko once he was gone.

“I can hear you, you know,” he called from the bathroom, drawing a laugh from Hana.

When he walked back into the kitchen, Hana finally relented and allowed him to give her a good morning kiss.

She then turned off the burners she was using and pulled the flour tortillas from the fridge.

"I hope you're ready to eat," she said as she grabbed two plates from the cupboard.

"Am I," Garrett enthusiastically responded.

When they sat down to eat, one breakfast burrito each, Hana gave a thoughtful hum.

“I had a strange dream,” she said when Garrett gave her an inquiring look.

“What was it?”

“Well, in the beginning of my dream, I was standing on a balcony overlooking a giant hole. These girls were talking to me about how their friend died shortly after her boyfriend did, and they let me hear the last recording of her voice. When I started crying, they asked me why, because I didn’t know her.

“I told them that it was sad, because she had been alive, but now she wasn’t; on top of it all, there was still evidence of her having existed at all, even in their memories. Then, we all threw coins into the hole, I guess in a sort of remembrance of her.

“Later in my dream, I went home to my apartment, where I had at least one roommate. I remember seeing them sitting on the couch in front of the TV, which was just set to a dead channel, before I went into the bathroom to get ready to go to sleep. While I was brushing my teeth, I saw a man standing behind me in the mirror; he wasn’t there when I looked over my shoulder.”

Hana laughed when Garrett’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Don’t say anything yet; the weirdest part hasn’t even come yet.”

His expression turned unsettled, but he nodded without saying anything.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’m too late. I messed up. I’m going to die.’ When I went into my room, I left the door open, and the guy appeared by my bed and said something about killing my dreams, I think. And then he stabbed me, but I managed to pull myself over to the doorway in time to see my roommate still just sitting in front of the TV, which was still on.

“Then, I was suddenly on that balcony again. Everything went the same, including me coming home and going into the bathroom while my roommate sat in front of the TV that was playing a dead channel. This time, though, I didn’t see the man in the mirror. Though, when I went to my room, I closed and locked the door, but as I was locking it, I thought, ‘I’m still too late. I’m going to die. This wasn’t the right choice.’”

Garrett was quiet for a moment. He nodded slowly as he processed the dream.

“That’s what you get for thinking during a nightmare,” he finally said, drawing a laugh from Hana. “That is pretty weird, though. Do you often have dreams like that?”

“The weirdest part was honestly the fact that I was thinking about how I wanted to wake up during the whole dream.” Hana’s nose scrunched up in thought. “But yeah, I do have really vivid, abstract dreams like that. They often don’t mean anything, unless I’m myself in my dream.”

“Which,” Garrett paused to frown thoughtfully, “you weren’t in this dream.”

“Nope. I don’t know who I was, but it wasn’t me.”

Garrett smiled then. “That’s pretty cool, though, having dreams that are so vivid and complex. I guess it goes to show that you’re creative, even on a subconscious level, huh?”

Hana felt her face heat up at that as her lips curled into a sheepish smile. “I guess so.”

They fell into a comfortable silence as they finished their food. Both of them ended up having only one breakfast burrito before he left for work and she left for class.

“You know,” Hana said when she sat down in her seat across from Evelyn in class, “I moved in with Garrett.”

“Really?” Evelyn exclaimed, leaning over the table with widened eyes. “When?”

“You’re not going to believe this.” Hana laughed. “I just got fully moved in about a week ago.”

“No way.” Evelyn sat back in her chair, the shock still settling on her face. “And you told me about it before a month passed?”

“Well, unlike getting together, moving in with him was actually a pretty big change.”

Evelyn gave a snort of laughter at that, shaking her head slightly. “I guess you two  _ were _ acting like you were dating way before you ended up getting together. I’m surprised you didn’t kiss beforehand, given how clueless you two apparently are.”

Hana laughed and leaned back in her chair.

“Just so you know,” Evelyn leaned across the table and patted Hana’s shoulder, “I  _ am _ happy for you two.”

“Thanks.” Hana smiled. “It’s good to know I have my best friend’s approval.”

This pulled a chuckle from her best friend.

“He’s a good guy, and he’s lucky to have you.”

When she got back from class, she found that Garrett wasn’t home, so she pulled out her phone to see if he’d sent her a text to let her know he’d be out.

“I’m going to go shopping,” he had texted her half an hour ago while she was still in class.

“Oh,” she murmured as she walked inside.

When she heard his car pull into the driveway, Hana walked outside to see if he needed any help. Garrett spotted her and flashed her a smile before closing his trunk and approaching her.

When Hana saw that his hands were full, she reached a hand out to take some of the bags from him; he looked down at her hand, swapped all the groceries over to one hand, and grabbed hers in his free one, grinning at her.

“That’s not—” she cut herself off when she saw the grin and released a sigh. “Never mind.”

She instead reached into his pocket and pulled his keys from it, turning towards the car and locking it. They then went inside together and unloaded and put away the groceries.

Once they were done putting the groceries away, Garrett walked into the living room and turned on a slow love song.

“Hey, Hana,” he called, flashing her a smile when she popped her head out of the kitchen to look at him. He reached out for her. “Come here.”

When Hana walked over to him, he placed one of his hands to her waist and took her hand in his other one. She raised an eyebrow as her lips pulled into a smile.

“Don’t tell me,” she said, pulling a laugh from Garrett.

“What?” he snickered. “Do you not want to slow dance with me in my living room?”

“I can’t dance, though.”

“Then we can just sway to the music.” Garrett pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

“Okay, I can do that.” Hana lifted her free hand and pressed her palm to his shoulder.

She looked up at him and held his gaze as they swayed gently to the music, and eventually, he pulled his hand from hers to rest it on the other side of her waist. This allowed for Hana to clasp her hands together behind his neck, and he took that as an invitation to lean down and press his lips to hers in a languid kiss.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, Hana and Garrett messaged their families about getting together for the holiday so that they could meet each other on the day. Both families excitedly agreed with the idea of meeting up for the holiday.

Once the day rolled around, they decided to meet up at Alice and Gabriel’s house. When Hana and Garrett arrived, there were three women whom Hana was unfamiliar with.

“Oh,” Garrett said when he saw them, “those are my sisters. Emma is the oldest, Olivia is next, and Charlotte is the youngest; though, they’re all older than me.”

He gave a soft laugh at Hana’s raised brow and small smile.

“Hey girls,” Alice called, “this is Hana; she’s Garrett’s girlfriend.”

“Nice to meet you,” Emma said enthusiastically as she moved closer to Hana to give her a quick hug.

Hana saw her sisters nodding in agreement from over her shoulder.

Once Hana’s family arrived, a glass bowl of green bean casserole, a container of mashed potatoes, and a container of gravy — all made from scratch — in hand, the first thing that happened was introductions were gotten out of the way.

The parents went to the kitchen to chat about Hana and Garrett and how they’d come to learn of their relationship while the kids moved to the living room to hang out.

It was while they chatted that Hana found out that Emma was the one who helped Garrett make the necklace she was still wearing. She also got to find out that Olivia did belly dancing and often made some of her own outfits. Charlotte had a young girl with her — her daughter, named Mia. From what Hana could see, Mia and Garrett were fairly close, if him lifting her up and bouncing her in the air was anything to go by.

Eventually, she sat down in his lap as everyone else talked.

When the smell of dinner became too unbearable, Mia climbed down from Garrett’s lap and ran into the kitchen.

“Grandma, when will the food be ready?” she asked.

“Soon, sweetie,” Alice responded with a soft laugh. “Why don’t you get something to snack on while waiting?”

“I’ll have some chips!”

“Here, let me get you a serving so you don’t get too full on them.”

Hana heard Alice open the pantry door up and start sifting through the bags of chips they had.

“Which one do you want, dear?” she asked.

Mia gave a thoughtful hum. “How about the classic Sets?”

“All right.” Alice laughed and Hana heard her pull the bag of chips down.

“So, how long have you two been together?” Emma asked suddenly. “I remember Garrett bringing me that shell you have on your neck; it was pretty fun to make.”

“We’ve been together since about mid-July,” Hana said with a smile.

“Wow,” Charlotte said. “Four months already. How long have you two known each other?”

“We met in November last year,” Garrett said. “She got hired at Health Precision.”

“So you two have known each other for a year, huh?” Yumi said.

Hana nodded at that, her lips pulling into a wide smile.

“Well, you seem pretty sweet,” Olivia said with a smile. “A lot better than she-who-shan’t-be-named.”

Garrett snorted at that.

“Same on our end, regarding Hana’s ex,” Liam said.

“He was kind of,” Yumi started, her gaze shifting towards the ceiling in thought, “extremist. And a dick.”

“But, like,” Mina leaned forward in her chair, her first amount of movement since she’d settled down awkwardly on the seat, “low-key about it, you know?”

“Yeah,” Yumi drawled. “He was like a ‘soft boy’.”

Hana grimaced. “Can we not talk about him right now?”

Yumi laughed. “Sure. Sorry.”

Mia came back in and climbed into Charlotte’s lap, with no chips to speak of.

“Already finished your snack?” Charlotte asked gently.

“Uh-huh,” Mia nodded. “Grandma told me to drink some water, too, because I might be thirsty too.”

“Was she right?”

“Mm-hm.”

Charlotte gave a soft laugh and ran her fingers through Mia’s hair as the group continued to chat.

Eventually, Gabriel popped his head into the room and lifted his eyebrows twice in quick succession.

“Food’s ready,” he said with a bright grin.

“Yay!” Mia cheered, clambering off of Charlotte’s lap and running into the dining room.

Everyone else laughed as they followed after her.

“Your folks’ dishes are great,” Alice said, placing a dish of turkey on the table in the center of the rest of the dishes as they walked in.

They all chatted as they ate, and Hana couldn’t help the warmth she felt that their families seemed to get along as well as they did.

A couple of days later, Hana found one of her all-time favorite books. It was something she’d first read in her first year of high school and had revisited at least four times since then. She knew virtually every word by heart, and even if she didn’t, she just had to envision what she’d read on the pages to fill in the blanks.

It couldn’t hurt to read it again.

Garrett walked in while she was reading it and placed his messenger bag — which he kept his laptop in — beside the couch.

“What are you reading?” he asked as he leaned over the back of the couch to take a look at the pages.

“It’s a book called  _ Raven _ ,” Hana said, turning to place a kiss on his cheek. “It’s been one of my favorites since high school. I think I’ve read it five times now.”

“Wow.” Garrett leaned back and combed his fingers through her hair. “I guess I should read it, too, then. If you enjoy it, it must be good.”

Hana smiled and turned so she was turned to the side on the couch, one leg tucked against her chest. “Why don’t we take turns reading it out loud?”

Garrett gave an inquiring tilt of his head at that.

“You read one page, and I’ll read the next. We take turns like that.” She closed the book over her index finger and waved it at him. “Don’t forget to read the dialogue in a voice that seems like it’d be in theme with the story or character that you’re reading from.”

Garrett smiled and took hold of the book, pulling it away from her hand and effectively losing her page. “Sure. That sounds fun.”

He opened the book to the first page and started reading from it; most of the first few pages were just prose, introducing the reader to the setting, tone of the story, and who the main character was and what he was experiencing at the time of the story’s opening. He had awoken in a sewer in the dead of night; the air was frosty from the freezing temperatures that December brought with it. Even worse — he couldn’t remember anything about who he was or why he was there.

“Sounds like he’s gotten himself into quite the predicament,” Garrett said with raised eyebrows. “It’s a good thing the water around him is moving; otherwise he’d be stuck in frozen water.”

“Yeah, but now he’s gotta get through the freezing waters that no doubt smell like shit,” Hana quipped, earning a small laugh and a nod from Garrett.

From then, Hana and Garrett took turns, reading the book a page at a time and matching their tones with that of the book. When continuous dialogue would occur, Garrett would read it from the book and Hana would recite the response from memory.

By the end of the book, Garrett gave a nod towards Hana with a thoughtful expression.

“So?” she asked, leaning towards him slightly with interest. “Did you like it?”

He smiled and held the book out to her, which she took and tucked onto her lap.

“Yeah, it’s pretty good,” he said.

He moved to sit down on the couch with her, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her against his side. Garrett pressed a kiss to her temple and smiled at her.

“I can see why you’ve read it so many times.”

The cold December air woke Hana, and she rolled over to take a peek at the time.

03:42.

Shivering, she rolled back over to go to sleep. It was only as she lay there that she realized why she had woken up in the first place: there was no blanket.

Hana lifted her head and looked around the room, blinking tiredly. When she looked to her right, she saw that Garrett had somehow stolen all of the blanket from her and piled it on himself.

She reached over and grabbed an edge of the blanket, tugging on it until it came loose from underneath him.

"Hn?" Garrett asked, stirring from the movement. "What's going on?"

His voice was sleep-laden, his words slurring together in his half-conscious state as Hana pulled the warm blanket over her body.

"You stole the blanket," she half-whispered, drawing a tired chuckle from him.

"Sorry. I guess it's cold." He started to sit up then, causing Hana to give him a quizzical look. "I'll go get us another blanket."

He reached over to rub her shoulder before he turned and walked out of the room.

"Garrett," she called after him. "Just get another blanket tomorrow."

His sleepy laugh reached her ears as she listened to him open the closet door in the bathroom. Then, he came back with another blanket.

"Voila," he said with a soft chuckle.

Hana rolled out of bed and helped him get the blanket set up, making sure that neither one of them got too much or too little. Once the blanket was spread over the bed and tucked in at the foot, they crawled back into bed and Hana leaned over to press a quick, chaste kiss to Garrett’s lips.

"Thanks, love." She leaned back and lay on her side, pulling the blankets up to her ear and giving a satisfied sigh.

He gave a soft, affirmative hum.

"Yeah. Goodnight; I love you."

"Goodnight; I love you too."

The next morning, they worked together to make the bed, and then they went to take a shower together.

“Can I wash your hair?” Garrett asked once they’d both had some time to stand under the water.

“Hm?” Hana asked, and then she blinked and smiled. “Sure. You know how to do it, right?”

“Yep: massage the shampoo into your scalp and not the ends — that’s where the conditioner goes.”

Hana let out a laugh when she saw him grab the conditioner.

“Not this one.” She placed her palm to the back of his hand to stop him from opening the bottle. Then, she maneuvered his hand to put the bottle down and wrapped his fingers around the shampoo bottle. “This one.”

“Oh.” Garrett gave a sheepish laugh. “Thanks.”

He placed his hands onto her shoulders and turned her so that the water flowed from the showerhead and onto her chest.

“Remember not to use too much,” she said when he opened the bottle. “Just a nickel-sized amount is good.”

He gave an affirmative hum and reached over her shoulder to place his fingers underneath her chin and gently tilt her head back. He withdrew his hand when she complied and his hands were in her hair, then, fingers working to massage the shampoo into her hair. Hana’s eyes fluttered shut at the sensation of someone else washing her hair for her.

“All done,” he said as his hands left her hair.

She opened her eyes and smiled back at Garrett before tilting her head forward again and turning around to rinse her hair in the water. Hana ran her hands through her hair to make sure all the shampoo was out before moving out of the water so Garrett could rinse his hands off.

“Now I get to wash your back,” she said.

He turned to smile at her from over his shoulder and Hana’s heart fluttered at the expression.

“Okay,” he said when he turned to look forward again.

Hana grabbed the Raven sensitive bar soap, which she used on her face, shoulders, chest, and back due to how sensitive her skin was, and rubbed it between her hands until she had a good lather going. Then, she put the bar soap down and turned to rub it into Garrett’s skin, focusing on his shoulders and shoulder blades when she found that the muscles underneath were particularly tight.

This drew a pleased sigh from Garrett’s lips, which caused Hana to smile in satisfaction. When his muscles were finally loose, she withdrew her hands, her right lingering to pat the back of his shoulder twice.

“All done,” she said, echoing his earlier words.

When Garrett turned around, he had his hands cupped in front of his chest. Before Hana could even inquire as to what he was doing, he flung them forward and she was being splashed in the face with water.

“Oh, what a dirty trick,” she exclaimed. “And after I was so nice to you, too! I oughta turn the water cold while you’re under there!”

Garrett just laughed, bright and full of mirth as Hana continued grumbling once she was done whining about it.

Once mid-December hit, Hana and Garrett were sitting on the couch together with him playing a video game on the TV and her reading a book in her lap. Then, she gave a thoughtful hum and looked up at him.

“Have you ever gone ice skating?” she asked, and Garrett paused his game to look incredulously at her.

“Yeah,” he said after a moment of thought, “but it was when I was really young. I don’t remember being terribly good at it, so I didn’t go again.”

Hana laughed at that and marked her page, stretching out towards the coffee table to put it down.

“Well, it’s the perfect time to go, you know.”

Garrett watched warily as Hana hopped up from the couch and stretched.

“You want to go ice skating now?”

“Well, it’s early, and we have nothing else to do. We can go in the afternoon, if you’d rather wait; though I think the skating rink will be a lot clearer in the morning.”

“Is it even open in the morning?” Garrett put his controller down and started fishing his phone out of the couch cushions.

“Well, yeah.” Hana laughed and started walking towards their room. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered mentioning the morning as a possibility.”

When she finished getting ready and walked out of their room, Garrett was turning the system off and standing up from the couch. He gave her a sheepish smile when he saw her.

“Sorry,” he said as he started towards their room, “I had to find a save point so that I could shut everything down.”

“That’s okay.” She smiled. “I’ll be waiting at the door.”

She went to the front door and pulled her shoes on, grabbing her jacket from the hangers by the door and pulling it over her shoulders. When Garrett came back out of their room, she was wrapping her scarf around her neck.

He threw a smile in her direction and did the same.

“Ready?” he asked when he was done.

“I was waiting on you,” she said with a laugh.

When they arrived at the ice skating rink, Hana excitedly rented ice skating shoes for the two of them. As they were putting their shoes on and lacing them up, she noticed that Garrett’s hands were a bit unsteady as he did so.

“Here,” she said, moving to crouch in front of him when she finished tying off her shoes, “let me help.”

Garrett withdrew his hands and offered a nervous smile as Hana laced his shoes up and tied them off.

“Is that too tight?” She stood up and stepped back to give him room to stand as well.

Garrett hummed as he stood up, his legs unsteady as he stood on the blades of the ice skates. Hana offered her hands for him to balance himself with, and he gratefully took both of them and gave a few experimental — although shaky — steps.

“They’re good,” he said with a wobbly smile. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Hana laughed and helped him over to the ice, where she stepped out into the rink first and turned around to offer her hands again. Garrett reached out for them, grabbing onto them and letting Hana pull him onto the ice.

“Let’s move closer to the center,” Hana said, gesturing towards it with a nod, though she laughed at the incredulous look Garrett was giving her. “There’s less people there, so you won’t have to worry as much about tripping over a kid or something; besides, you’ll have me to hold onto, so you have nothing to worry about.”

“Okay,” Garrett said with a shaky nod, “but if we go down, you can’t blame me.”

Hana gave a snort of laughter and started moving them to the center of the rink.

“Look at how I’m moving my feet,” she said once they were where she wanted them to be.

He looked down at her feet and she slowly let go of his hands and moved to skate ahead of him before turning around and skating back to his side. When she was back at his side, he flashed her an uncertain smile and began to imitate what she was doing. His balance was still shaky, but with enough practice, it seemed like he’d definitely have it down in no time.

“Good. Now, this is how I turn.”

Again, Garrett watched fervently as she moved ahead of him again and skated in an S-shaped pattern before moving back to his side. As she paused at his side again, he gave her a wary look.

“I’m probably going to fall,” he said.

“Then I’ll be here to help you up,” she said with a smile. “And also to make sure no one runs you over.”

“Thanks,” he drawled, sounding unconvinced, though his eyes seemed to be smiling.

Still, he moved forward and started imitating her movements. His S-shaped pattern was bigger than hers, but he was still doing it successfully. As he turned to face her, his balance was thrown off and he toppled over backwards.

Hana winced as he caught his fall on his elbows. She moved over to him and reached out for him. He tentatively took her hand and allowed for her to pull him to his feet.

“Ouch,” she said once he was fully righted.

“‘Ouch’ is right,” he said in a strained voice, one hand rubbing at the opposite elbow; the one that no doubt took the brunt of the fall.

“At least you didn’t hit your head, right?”

“At least I didn’t hit my head,” he echoed, and despite his deadpan tone, Garrett still offered her a reassuring smile. “What are you still standing around for? Don’t I have to get the basics down?”

Hana reached up to rub his arm before running her hand down it to take his in her grasp. “That you do. Let’s go.”

They spent all of two hours there, going around in circles. At some points, Hana would skate backwards in front of Garrett and just his hands while smiling at him. By the end of their skating session, Garrett’s movements were a lot more steady and confident and he could skate without holding onto her.

When they got home, Garrett’s nose and cheeks were bitten pink from the cold air of both the skating rink and outside. When he hung his jacket up and pulled off his shirt to change into pajamas, Hana noticed bruises already forming on his forearms from when he’d fallen.

Once they finished changing, Garrett went and sat down on the couch. Then, he looked at Hana with an expectant look.

“Cuddle me,” he said in response to the tilt of her head, “it’s cold.”

“How romantic,” she crooned with a snicker. “Demanding cuddles and affection.”

Garrett deadpanned at her, though his lips twitched with a barely-repressed smile, withdrawing his hands and crossing them in his lap. “I don’t give a shit about being romantic; I’m  _ cold _ . If you’re going to make fun of me, you could at least get your ass over here and share your warmth.”

“Are you upset because I let you fall down three times?” Hana laughed as she walked over to Garrett and crawled into his lap, hooking her arms around his shoulders.

“Maybe.” Garrett planted a light kiss to the tip of her nose. “At least your nose is cold, unlike the rest of you.”

Hana snorted at that. “My cheeks are probably cold, too. Would you mind too terribly if I asked you to give my cheeks kisses as well?”

Garrett blew a soft puff of air from his nose, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “Sure, if you insist.”

He leaned over and planted a brief kiss on each cheek, before placing a longer kiss to her lips.

“All better?” he asked when he leaned away.

“Yeah,” Hana said with a giggle. “Definitely all better.”

As they sat there, he started to doze off, drawing a small smile from Hana. He must have been tired from all the activity. She leaned her head on his shoulder and allowed herself the same luxury.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	14. Travels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hana meets Garrett's extended family.

In May of the next year, Garrett came back from work while Hana was sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, busying herself with her homework.

“Hi,” she called, turning towards him with a wide smile. “How was work?”

“It was good,” he said as he pulled his shoes off, walking into the room afterwards. “My boss is discussing a pay raise already.”

Hana leaned her cheek on the side of his knee as he sat down.

“Really?” She turned to look up at him, eyes practically sparkling with excitement. “That’s so awesome!”

“Isn’t it?” Garrett reached over to comb his fingers through her hair. “She’s also going to give me the okay to work from home, at least for a couple of weeks.”

At that, Hana leaned away from his leg and turned fully to face him with a quizzical expression. “Two weeks? That’s really specific.”

He gave a hum and nodded sagely, though his lips kept twitching into a partial smile.

“It is, I suppose.” He looked back down at her and finally allowed himself to smile. “Maybe that’s because you’ll be meeting my grandparents next month.”

She blinked dumbly at him. “Huh?”

“Well, my mom told them about us, and they decided that they just  _ had _ to meet the special lady.” He reached out to brush some stray hairs out of her face. “I guess my mom really likes you. In any case, they live in the midwest — we’ll need to fly there.”

Hana blinked away her surprise and shifted her position, folding her legs underneath herself. “I’ve never travelled by plane.”

Garrett laughed and leaned over to press a kiss to her forehead. “I know you have mild motion sickness, so we can get you some ginger ale during the flight.”

“I guess I’ll have to request some time off from work, then?”

“Yeah.” Garrett nodded. “I’m sure Lilith will give it to you; not only is she cool like that, but you’ve been awesome so far, so you deserve a break.”

“Besides, they’ve got enough people to cover for me while I’m gone.”

“They do, indeed.”

“I’ll contact Yumi to see if she can keep an eye on Emiko while we’re gone.”

One month passed without incident, and Hana was indeed granted two weeks off from work. Yumi agreed to keep an eye on Emiko while they were gone, so she had shown up the day they were planning to leave. Hana gave her the key and thanked her for staying.

With everything packed for the trip, Hana and Garrett drove to the airport, grabbed their flight tickets, and waited to board the plane.

“They have a bathroom on the plane, but there’s just one,” Garrett told her as they sat down. “We have to make sure we use the bathroom before we board.”

“Okay,” Hana said with a nod. “It’s a good thing we’ve already gone.”

“I know.” Garrett bumped their shoulders together with a soft laugh. “I’m just letting you know, just in case you end up having to pee or something.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Before long, their flight number was called and they waited for their seating numbers to be called. When they were, they got into line and boarded the plane when it was their turn. Garrett let Hana sit in the window seat, and he sat in between her and the other person who would sit in the aisle seat.

Hana tried to sleep through most of the flight, so it ended up…  _ flying _ by.

It was nighttime when they landed. The first thing Hana noticed when they left the airport — aside from the humid heat even at night — was the sound of crickets.

“I haven’t heard crickets in years,” she said. “I don’t miss it.”

“They’re a lot noisier than the frogs we get back at home, huh?” Garrett said with a laugh.

“Yeah.” She shook her head and sighed. “How are we going to get there?”

“We can take a taxi, or we can rent a car at the building over there.” He gestured to a building across the street from the airport.

“Let’s take a taxi. I think it’ll be cheaper than renting a car for two weeks.”

“Yeah.” Garrett shook his head. “We’d have to pay for the car rental every day, even if we weren’t driving anywhere.”

He waved down a taxi and told the driver where their destination was. During the drive, Hana realized that his grandparents lived in the country, away from the big city. At some point, he reached across her to gesture out the window to her right.

“Take a look at that,” he said. “Do you see that thing that looks like a cloud of light over the city?”

Hana leaned over to look outside.

“Oh, yeah,” she said with a fervent nod. “What is it?”

“That’s light pollution.” Garrett withdrew his hand. “You can’t tell when you’re in the city that it’s there, but once you leave, it’s super noticeable.”

“Damn.” Hana leaned back in her seat and looked at him. “What does it do?”

“The most apparent effect it has is that it blocks out the sky, so it’s harder to see the stars. As a result, it interferes with astronomical research.

“It also disrupts the ecosystem, as it can confuse and have adverse effects on nocturnal animals and plantlife, and it can also confuse the migratory patterns of wildlife.”

Hana gave a thoughtful hum at that. “And it’s a waste of energy.”

“Yeah.” Garrett nodded. “It can also suppress your body’s production of melatonin, which will throw off your circadian rhythm. I’d say that we should just turn out all the lights once it gets dark — not only will it save energy, but it won’t mess with nature.”

Hana grinned and nodded at that.

Once they arrived at Garrett’s grandparents’ house, he paid the taxi driver and thanked him before he left. With that, they walked to the door and Garrett knocked loudly on it.

“I’m not sure if they’ll still be awake right now,” he said apprehensively. “It is a little late —”

The door was pulled open, then, to reveal a kind-looking old woman, one Hana assumed to be Garrett’s grandmother.

“Hi, sweetie,” she said as she pulled him into a hug and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You should have let me know that you two had arrived; we would have gone to pick you up.”

“Grandma, please; we both know that you two can’t drive anymore,” Garrett said with a gentle smile as he pulled back from the embrace. “That’s why you two get your groceries delivered.”

His grandmother let out a good-natured laugh at that. Then, she turned her attention to Hana. “Is this lovely young woman your girlfriend?”

Garrett nodded. “Why don’t we go inside to do proper introductions? You’ll be able to see her better in the light.”

“Good idea.” She moved out of the way to let them in, closing and locking the door behind them once their luggage was through the door.

They took their shoes off and the three of them started towards a comfortable kitchen that was awash in warm browns, greens, and oranges. It had a brown table in it, closer to the walkway, that had an orange and white cloth lain over it. A staircase leading up from the kitchen alongside the living room to their right.

As they walked, she said, “Our dear of a caretaker isn’t here right now, but she comes here to work in the mornings at eleven and leaves at seven. That’s usually when we go to sleep.” She gave them a wink.

Once they were in the light of the kitchen, Garrett’s grandmother turned towards Hana and smiled.

“Hello, sweetie,” she said. “You’re Hana, right? Alice told us a lot about you. You can just call me grandma while you’re here.”

Hana blinked in surprise. “Can I?”

Her smile grew at that, the corners of her eyes crinkling with it. “Of course, dear. Now,” she stepped back and addressed both of them, “there are two separate rooms that you two can use, either separately, or together. Why don’t you two go and get some sleep?”

Garrett smiled and leaned towards her to press a light kiss to her cheek. “Of course, grandma. You’re way overdue for some sleep, anyway.”

As they walked up the stairs, she called after them to say, “Goodnight, you two!”

There were two bedrooms with master beds in them with a walkin bathroom — yes, for both rooms — nestled in between them. With a shared look, the two of them decided to sleep in the room to the left of the bathroom.

The next morning, when they woke up, it was to the smell of cookies being baked. The sound of cicadas singing rang from outside.

“I’ve never heard cicadas in real life,” Hana grumbled as she walked into the bathroom.

“Really?” Garrett asked as he followed her.

“Yeah.” She stretched and turned the shower on. “I’ve only ever heard them on shows and in video games and stuff.”

“Oh, of course.” He laughed and handed her toothbrush to her. “Well, you’re not missing out on anything; they’re so damn loud.”

Hana gave a snort of laughter, nearly spitting out a bunch of toothpaste as she did so.

Once they finished brushing their teeth, they took a shower, got dressed, and left their room.

As they walked downstairs, they could hear Garrett’s grandma saying, “She’s so beautiful, honey, and she seems like a sweetheart.”

“Linda,” a voice — Hana assumed he was Garrett’s grandfather — said, “you only just met her. You can’t be so sure that she’s all sunshine and rainbows.”

Garrett gave Hana a sidelong glance and an apologetic smile at that.

Suddenly, Garrett’s grandma popped out from around the corner with a plate of cookies in hand. She set them on the table and turned to look at them with a big smile.

“Good morning,” she said. “Would you like some cookies?”

“For breakfast?” Garrett laughed.

“Just a morning snack.” His grandma sent a wink their way as she walked back into the kitchen.

They walked in and sat down at the table, where Garrett’s grandma brought them two glasses of milk.

“Are you going to visit your great grandma?” his grandma asked as she sat down. “She’s still in the same care home as she was before.”

Garrett smiled at that. “I’m glad to hear she’s still in fairly good health. Do you think she’d like to meet Hana, even though her memory is still…”

He trailed off.

“I’m sure she would love to meet her.” She reached over the table to place a bony hand over his.

“We can visit her later this week.”

His grandma withdrew her hand and smiled. “Speaking of which, a lot of my friends are going from grandmas to great grandmas. You know, I think I’d love to have some little great grandkids at some point in the future, even if it isn’t for long.”

Garrett shared a look with Hana, who hid her smile by drinking some milk.

“I’m sure you’ll have some great grandkids soon, grandma,” Garrett said with a twinkle in his eye as he turned back to face her.

At this, she smiled wide, her own eyes twinkling as she leaned forward. “Really? Have you two talked about that?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “We’re thinking that you’ll have at least two.”

His grandma turned to the living room with a wide grin. “Do you hear that, honey? We might get to be great grandparents soon!”

“Yeah, I hear,” he said. “You’d better be good to Garrett, Hana. He’s a good guy, and he didn’t deserve what happened to him before.”

Hana chewed on the inside of her cheek at that, her face growing hot. She knew he didn’t have any ill will in saying that; Garrett had been treated horribly by Amanda, after all.

She was just glad that Amanda wasn’t going to bother them anymore.

“Grandpa, please,” Garrett said, turning towards the living room. “Hana isn’t the same as Amanda. She’s brilliant, strong, and kind.”

Hana turned to see Garrett’s grandpa eyeing him with a critical look in his eyes, his gaze searching as he stared. Then, as though he found what he was looking for, he sighed and nodded.

“All right.” He offered Hana a smile. “If he has all that to say about you, then I’ll believe him.”

Hana offered a smile in return. “Thank you.”

“How long have you two known each other?” Garrett’s grandma asked.

“We’ve known each other for a little over a year and a half.” Garrett turned to face her as he spoke, with Hana following the action. “We’ve been together for almost a year.”

“Wow…” She nodded approvingly.

They continued chatting for a while until Garrett had to do some stuff for work.

Later in the week, they went to visit the care center that Garrett’s great grandma was in. When they got to the building, Garrett turned to Hana and gave her hand a light pull so she would stop as well.

“She has Alzheimer’s Disease, so she only remembers me as a twelve-year-old child,” he said seriously.

Hana nodded fervently, starting to feel a little nervous. “Should I do anything specific?”

“Just try to be gentle with her.” Garrett started walking again, with Hana following his movements. “She was friendly and talkative the last time I saw her; she might be the same way, but I don’t know.”

When they entered the building, Garrett told the receptionist who they were there to visit. They were led to her room, where she sat in a chair and watched the TV. Initially, she didn’t respond to them entering, until Garrett came around her side to look at her.

“Oh, Garrett,” she said, reaching up for him with shaking hands. “You’ve grown up so much.”

He leaned down and gave her a gentle hug, during which Hana noticed that she wasn’t pressing her hands to his back.

“I just put some lotion on, so I want to make sure I don’t get any on your clothes, dear.” She removed her arms from him, and he stood back up and smiled at her.

“Hey nanna,” he said. “How have you been doing?”

“Oh, I’ve been good.” She gestured to the TV behind him. “I watch a lot of television, you know.”

Then, she looked at Hana and blinked hard a few times.

“Who is this beautiful girl?” she asked Garrett, who let out a soft laugh.

“This is Hana.” He walked over to Hana and wrapped an arm around her waist. “She’s my girlfriend. Grandma wanted me to introduce her to you.”

“You have a girlfriend? Oh my…” She looked Hana over and smiled. “Linda likes her enough to have you introduce us? That’s good.”

They spent some time catching up — and getting to know each other, for Hana — before they bade farewell and went back to Garrett’s grandparents’ house.

When they walked in, his grandma was gathering the materials to make some creamed corn, which Garrett immediately took over when he noticed. Hana decided to help as well when he did, smiling as she did so.

“I love creamed corn,” she said as they cooked.

Garrett smiled at her. “Me too.”

Once it was ready, they served some for themselves and Garrett’s grandpa. He then walked to the entryway of the living room and smiled at his grandpa.

“Do you want some creamed corn?” he asked.

“Oh, yes please,” his grandpa responded.

Garrett went into the living room and pushed his grandpa’s wheelchair into the dining room so he could join them while Hana got a serving for him as well.

“Are you in school?” Garrett’s grandpa asked Hana as they sat down.

“Yeah,” she said as she nodded. “I’m studying anesthesiology.”

“She’s also working as a shift supervisor at the store I worked at before I moved to my current company,” Garrett said.

His grandpa nodded with an impressed look coming to rest on his face. “You weren’t wrong when you said that she’s brilliant.”

“Oh, come on,” Hana said sheepishly, her hands coming up to cover her face. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m  _ brilliant _ .”

“I heard from Alice that she likes to write and draw,” Garrett’s grandma said with a hint of admiration coloring her voice.

Hana’s cheeks turned hot.

“Oh?” his grandpa turned a curious look on Hana. “What kinds of things do you write and draw?”

“I like to write fantasy,” Hana stuttered. “I haven’t finished my story just yet, but it should be done soon.

“She draws comics and pictures for what she writes,” Garrett said. “She also likes to draw portraits.”

“Wow,” his grandma breathed as his grandpa nodded in approval. “Can we see some of your works?”

“O-oh, sure.” Hana took her phone out of her pocket and pulled up one of her complete pieces, turning the screen towards Garrett’s grandparents.

They spent some time admiring her work, giving “ooh”s and “ahh”s as she showed them more of her completed works under their request.

By the end of their two weeks, Hana and Garrett had talked a lot with his grandparents and spent much of their time watching TV and helping them with cooking and cleaning. They had even gone outside to look at how the stars looked without the curtain of light pollution over it. As they were leaving, his grandma gave them a tearful goodbye while his grandpa told them to come by again some time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is, once again, based on real life events!! Except it was with one of my exes lol, but it was fun so I decided to include it.
> 
> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	15. Next Steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hana and Garrett shop for houses.

One year later, Garrett and Hana sat huddled together in front of his laptop as they scrolled through houses for sale.

“How about this one?” Hana asked, pointing to a house with four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

“Let’s see,” Garrett said as he clicked on it and scrolled through the information. “Two stories, four bedrooms, three bathrooms.”

He hummed and started clicking through the photos.

“White countertops and cabinets,” he said with a nod. “Nice.”

Hana turned an inquiring look on him. “Why?”

He looked at her and snickered. “What do you mean ‘why’?”

“I mean, why do you say it’s nice?”

“You can paint the cabinets. The walls are also white, which provides the same opportunity.”

“Oh, I see.” Hana nodded. “So you want something we can customize to be ours.”

Garrett smiled and nodded, his eyes twinkling. “Oh, there’s no carpet either, just hardwood floors. Even better.”

“Ooh, yeah, that’s a good selling point.”

“And a garage.”

“Even better.”

Garrett turned his smile towards Hana, who promptly returned it.

They were  _ definitely _ going to check this house out in person.

He stood up and called the number on the page, letting them know that the two of them wanted to come in to take a look.

“So, the appointment will be on Saturday this week,” Garrett said after the call ended. “Does that sound good?”

“Yeah, that’ll work for me,” Hana said with a nod. “I don’t have work that day.”

He smiled. “Good.”

Once Saturday rolled around, they showed up to the house bright and early, each with a coffee in hand. The salesperson greeted them with a bright smile.

“Hello,” she said as she approached them. “My name is Alexis, and I’ll be the one showing you around this lovely house today.”

“Nice to meet you,” Hana said, reaching a hand out, which Alexis promptly took and gave a good shake. “My name is Hana.”

“And I’m Garrett,” he said, shaking Alexis’s hand as well.

“It’s so nice to make your acquaintances.” Alexis withdrew her hand with a smile.

She walked them to the front door and let them all in; when Hana and Garrett removed their shoes at the entryway, Alexis did the same.

She walked them through the house — to the living room immediately to the left of the entryway, an office to the right the entryway that was behind a pair of nice white French doors, a dining room immediately ahead of the living room, with stairs across the way. The large kitchen was next to the dining room, with a wall separating the two rooms, and the family room across from that, on the other side of the stairs, and through the kitchen was the two-car garage that led to the front of the house with a bathroom right next to it.

Up the stairs was a loft space with two bedrooms to the left. A hallway that ran alongside the stairs led towards another bedroom, a bathroom, and the laundry room. The master bedroom was to the right of the loft space — it had a sitting room on the left side of the main room and a hallway to the right that led to the master bathroom. There were closets on either side of the hallway, and the bathroom contained a large bathtub, a sizable shower, two sinks, and a toilet.

Once they were finished with the tour of the house, they regrouped near the walkway at the front door.

“I’ll give you two some time to talk this over,” Alexis said. “Buying a house is a really big decision, so you’ll want to be absolutely certain about this. Once you’ve made your decision, just come meet me outside.”

With that, she turned, put her shoes back on, and walked out of the house, leaving Hana and Garrett inside to discuss things.

“This house would look really nice with your plants,” Hana said thoughtfully, earning a huff of laughter from Garrett.

“That’s what you’re thinking about?” he asked, voice still holding a slight tremor from trying not to laugh.

“Just one of the things, yeah. The room here,” she walked into the office, “can be the office; our books and desk can go in here.”

Garrett gave a hum of agreement. “The desk can go on the left side and the bookcases can go on the right. I also have a filing cabinet that can go in between the desk and shelves.”

Hana gave a nod, smiling as she walked out of the office and into the family room. “The TV and entertainment center can go against the windows, and the couch can go on the wall opposite. The cat tree can go in the corner closest to the TV.”

They walked around the house, continuing to point out where their furniture could go and what kinds of decorations would look good.

“Yeah.” Hana nodded once they had returned to the front door. “Yeah, I think this will work. The foundation seems good, and the house itself seems like it’s pretty stable and in good condition.”

“At the very least, it isn’t a few decades old.” Garrett let out a soft laugh. “Do you want to let Alexis know that we’ve made a decision?”

She nodded once more, turning a bright smile towards him.

She could already feel her stomach doing somersaults at the novelty of this, though the adventurer in her decided that it was exciting all the same.

They put their shoes on and went outside to meet with Alexis, who turned an expectant smile on them.

“We’re going to buy it,” Garrett said once they were in front of her.

“Oh, how wonderful,” she said, clapping her hands together with a bright grin.

She walked them through what they would need to do to purchase the house, and the two agreed that they would put some money together for the down payment.

“Lovely,” Alexis said when they were all finished. “Thank you so much for your time. I hope the house is to your long term liking.”

The process of moving everything over took about one week, with them having to pack everything up and get in contact with some movers. Garrett had decided that he wanted him and Hana to move his plants over on their own, and that the movers could handle the rest of the furniture.

Once they got everything moved over, Hana and Garrett got to work on getting their furniture where they wanted it, and his plants came after that.

Then, came one of the harder parts of moving: unpacking all of their things. They decided to work with their clothes and other fabrics first before moving onto any decorations or anything.

Once they started working on getting decorations out, Emiko explored the house while they worked, sniffing around and getting acquainted with the new environment. When they finished with that, they moved onto the rest.

“Man,” Hana groaned, sitting back on her heels as she stared up at the bookshelves.

“What?” Garrett called from the family room, where he was putting their DVDs and video games up in two other sets of shelves.

“Just looking forward to being done with this, is all.” She gave a breathless laugh. “I can’t believe this is so difficult for me; I literally work in retail, where I have to stock shelves all the time.”

This earned her a loud laugh. “Once we’re done, that’ll be it for unpacking.”

“Hell yeah.”

It was a weak cheer, but it was a cheer nonetheless.

It earned her another laugh.

When Hana finally finished loading the books into the shelves, breaking down all of the boxes, and storing them in the garage, she went to the kitchen to get a cup of water. It seemed she was just in time, because Garrett was finishing with what he was doing as well. He smiled at her as he walked past with his own broken-down boxes.

When he came back in from the garage, Garrett joined her in the kitchen and filled a glass with water for himself.

“I’m feeling pretty good about this,” he said. “Everything's coming together so nicely.”

“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “The house is so nice; it’s already starting to feel like home.”

“Emiko already seems like she’s getting used to it.”

“Her breed is incredibly adaptable, you know.”

Garrett just laughed and leaned over to press a kiss to Hana’s cheek.

One week later, when they were fully moved in, Hana texted Evelyn and Ezra to let them know that they’d moved to a new house. Once she sent them the address, they — along with Owen — were at the door within fifteen minutes.

“You already moved again?” Owen asked incredulously as they all entered and removed their shoes. “Didn’t you just move into Garrett’s house a year ago?”

“I did,” Hana said, nodding. “His house was a little small, though, so we decided we wanted to live in a bigger house.”

Ezra gave a snort of laughter. “His house was pretty small.”

“Especially if you two are planning to get married and have kids one day,” Evelyn crooned, fluttering her eyelashes at Hana.

When Hana only smiled at that, Ezra and Evelyn exchanged looks.

“Wait,” Evelyn started.

“Are you two planning that far ahead?” Ezra asked.

“We’ve talked about kids,” Hana said with a smile as she turned to go to the kitchen.

“What about?” Owen asked, he and the other two following after her.

“How we want to raise kids, how many, and even name ideas.” Hana started getting drinks for them. “Turns out, most of our values align, especially when it comes to raising kids.”

“Oh, damn,” Ezra said. “So you two have planned pretty far ahead, huh?”

“I guess so.” Hana moved to sit down at the table.

“Why white cupboards?” Evelyn took the seat next to her.

Ezra nodded as he sat on Hana’s other side, with Owen sliding into the seat next to him.

“Well,” Hana smiled, “Garrett said that white cupboards will be nice because then we can paint on them.”

“Like an art project?” Owen tilted his head quizzically.

Hana nodded. “The white walls are also nice because we can paint them if we want, though I think I prefer the idea of using the cupboards as an art project, rather than the walls.”

Ezra snorted at that and shook his head. “The walls are too big for you.”

“I think she could do it, if she wanted to.” Evelyn gave Ezra a scrutinizing look. “Though, I think the walls would be less of an art project, and more of them just painting them whatever color they want them to be.”

Owen nodded as she spoke.

Garrett walked into the room and blinked in surprise when he saw the group seated at the table.

“Hi,” he said as he looked them over, receiving a chorus of “hi”s and “hello”s in return.

“Garrett, you and Hana are moving so fast,” Ezra said.

This earned him a quizzical look from Garrett. “We’ve been together for well over a year, now.”

At the incredulous tone in his voice, everyone seated at the table laughed.

“Why don’t you join us?” Evelyn said, standing up from her chair and moving to sit across from Hana.

Garrett smiled and moved to take the seat she had just gotten up from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


	16. Will You...?

Two years later, Garrett and Hana walked along the shore of the lake, their feet taking them in the direction of the bridge that led to his parents’ home. It was November, and Hana wore one of Garrett’s coats, which was pleasantly oversized when she wore it, her hands buried in the pockets to keep them warm. An early snow crunched beneath their feet as they stepped onto the pavement of the sidewalk that led to the bridge.

“You know, it was around this time of year that we first met,” she said, watching her breath puff into the air and float upwards to fade away as it danced towards the sky.

“Yeah, that was when you first started at Health Precision, right?” Garrett asked, right hand snaking into Hana’s left pocket and pulling her left hand out.

“Yeah.” She watched as he threaded their fingers together and folded her own fingers over the back of his hand. “I had a lot of fun working there, you know.”

He gave a hum of affirmation and lightly swung their hands back and forth.

They fell into a comfortable silence as they continued to walk, hands continuing to swing gently between them with each footfall. Hana noticed that there was no one on the bridge this time — maybe they had decided to stay home because of the snow.

Once they walked to the center of the bridge, Garrett paused. Hana stopped a couple of paces ahead of him and turned to look over her shoulder at him, head tilted inquiringly.

“What’s up?” she asked.

Garrett slowly let go of her hand and reached into his pocket. At this, Hana turned fully around to face him, watching as he pulled something from his pocket, hands fidgeting from where they came to rest on the object. He chewed on his bottom lip, his gaze cast to the side and ears tinted red — though whether that was due to nerves or the cold, she didn’t know.

“Garrett?” Hana pressed, growing worried at his nervous behavior.

He turned a wobbly smile to her and lowered himself to one knee, an action that made Hana’s heart leap into her throat. Then, he held a small white box up and pulled it open, revealing a diamond ring nestled within a cushion, and her hands came up to clasp together in front of her mouth, eyes stinging with tears.

“I realized,” he started in a warbled voice, his tongue darting out to wet his lips, “in December, a month after we met, that you might be the one. The more time I spent with you, the more I realized how right I was; activities I’d given up because of the poison from my previous relationship started to become fun again. I’ve come to enjoy life again, and color has returned to my world — and it’s all because of the love, light, and wonder that you simply radiate.”

Her chest constricted at that, her face hot and cheeks tingling despite the cold air nipping at her nose. Suddenly, the jacket seemed to be too much, even as snow continued to dance around them.

“You helped me start on the next step of my life.” A slight tremor had begun to settle into Garrett’s hands; whether that was due to his nerves or the cold was beyond Hana’s knowledge. “Would you like to walk into the next step of our lives together as well? Do you want to be my wife?”

“Yes,” Hana said, her voice barely above a whisper as her eyes stung with tears.

Garrett gave a blinding smile, and suddenly, his eyes looked glossy. He reached out with a trembling hand and grabbed the wrist of her left, lifting it so he could push the ring onto her finger.

Then he stood up and captured Hana’s waist in his arms, lifting her up into the air. She cupped her palms over his jaw, her thumbs braced against his cheeks and fingers beneath his ears as she pressed fervent kisses to his cheeks, his forehead, his eyes that closed under the contact, his nose, and finally his lips.

“I love you so much,” Hana breathed, giving an elated laugh and blinking her tears away; one spilled down her cheek despite her efforts.

“I love you too,” Garrett said as he gently lowered her to the ground, his hand coming up to brush his thumb over the tear. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“And you will.”

She placed her hands on his shoulders, sliding them down his arms and capturing his hands in her grasp. She then lifted his hands to her face and pressed kisses to each of his fingers. Garrett gave an elated laugh and removed one of his hands from hers to cup it over her cheek, fingers curling into her hair.

“And I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was so fun and sweet to write ;; It was one of the first things I got to work on when I started this project because I was so excited to write it ^u^
> 
> Thank you for reading! As always, if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a kudos and / or comment!


End file.
